Agent of Shield – LEGO Minecraft Magazine, May 2024

Amidst all my troubles I try to at least keep abreast with the various LEGO magazines and after last week saw no such release at all, now the latest Minecraft edition is here. Let’s see what awaits us in May 2024.

The comic plays out in large parts underwater and you know how that goes – it is very blue at times. It’s okay, though, as luckily we are treated to very dynamic panels and some shading variations depending on the situation, so it’s not all just a big indifferent mush of a single color. It’s also nice to see the dolphin and puffer fish pop up to add some variety.

The poster has a pair of pillagers on the front side and the one on the left happens to be the version we got as an actual minifigure last September. The back has a creeper wreaking havoc , but I dunno… The head is a bit too dominant and unless you’re standing very close it all looks like a bunch of random pixels exploding.

The extra consists of a duo of minifigures, those being a a Drowned Zombie and a Netherite Knight. The latter comes without the helmet and the armor pieces, however. That threw me off and I had to manually dig through the list on Bricklink before figuring things out. The minifigure is surprisingly expensive, so far only having featured in The Deep Dark Battle (21246) from last year. If you can live with the lack of the extra parts this could be an acceptable compromise.

You can always customize your figure by bashing things together from other sources. The armor and helmet were included in the February 2023 edition of the mag, for instance, just in the regular Flat Silver, not the Pearl Dark Grey. For the time being these remain a rare commodity. LEGO are being pretty sneaky at times. The reverse is also true on some level with the leg piece in Pearl Dark Grey having been used a lot in Super Heroes, Star Wars and Monkie Kid sets, but barely elsewhere. No matter how you spin it, this could be a win-win situation if you are into that minifigure thing.

That also goes for the 2 x 3 tile representing the shield, by the way. It also only resurfaced last year in that particular set I already mentioned and thus not too many new examples of it are available. It’s not super rare, but useful and desirable. Even just hanging it on a wall as an abstract painting would not look bad due to the metallic pattern sticking out and looking very decorative. The Drowned Zombie is the third time we get such a minifig if I have my numbers right, with the last having appeared in May 2023. It’s a nice enough figure and if you have an underwater temple or such you can’t have enough of them.

As you may have guessed based on my lengthy ramblings, the biggest value in this issue is the knight minifigure, at least for us adults. I was really surprised how valuable it is and I love those little research excursions on Bricklink. In that sense the magazine gave me quite a lot to do. The rest is okay, though I wish they’d get away just including the same minifigures over and over. At this point I’d have really been more satisfied with the dolphin than another zombie.

Waving into Spring again – LEGO Speed Champions 2024 first wave

It’s been a bit quiet those last three weeks on this here blog, but it’s not that I didn’t try. As Dr. Malcolm says in Jurassic Park “Life finds a way.” and in my case it always seems to come up with something to thwart my best laid plans. I once more got caught up between my health issues turning me into a lazy slob that sleeps all day, a bunch of medical appointments and some other annoyances that killed my motivation to sit down and write this article. I also distracted myself way too much with reading other people’s stuff and watching videos on YouTube admittedly. You know, especially long reviews like this take time to prepare the images and all that and then you have to actually be in the right mind to write the text without turning it into a boring slog of repetitive lines for the readers. Yes, even crappy writing takes time, believe it or not.

For this article we will be taking a look of this year’s first wave of Speed Champions sets and funny enough as I’m crafting this post, the next wave has already been announced, but it’s still a ways off, releasing in June and August. It’s also been pretty much about a year since I wrote an equally hunky article for the 2023 edition and it’s linked where appropriate for the discussion. Either way, the same warnings are in effect: This will be a long read if you care for it and could be a bit dull at times. The packages we are going to review are the 2023 McLaren Formula 1 Car (76919), Ford Mustang Dark Horse (76920), Audi S1 e-tron quattro (76921) and BMW M4 GT3 & BMW M Hybrid V8 (76922). For reasons of efficiency I have slightly altered the order and deviate from the perfect numerical sequence so I don’t have to explain the same things over and over again.

Contents and Pricing

Despite the massive price increases over the last five years the Speed Champions remain among the more reasonably priced LEGO offerings. It’s still affordable for everyone and you get a good Return of Investment (ROI) as they say in economics sciences. That is you get a good actual material value and also usually a good perceived value in terms of the size of the model, the number of pieces, the level of detail and realism and so on. Individually this breaks down to

• 2023 McLaren Formula 1 Car (76919), 245 pieces, 27 Euro MSRP
• Ford Mustang Dark Horse (76920), 344 pieces, 27 Euro MSRP
• Audi S1 e-tron quattro (76921), 274 pieces, 27 Euro MSRP
• BMW M4 GT3 & BMW M Hybrid V8 (76922), 676 pieces, 50 Euro MSRP

These of course aren’t actual street prices and you have to account for discounts. For the single car packages this brings the price down to around 18 Euro on average and for the double offering to 38 Euro, respectively. Naturally, potentially even lower prices are possible with special promotions, but this is what you can expect to be “normal” at this point two months after the release. Since the preparations for this article started out a few weeks ago I apparently paid a bit more when the initial rush hadn’t settled yet.

Parts Cornucopia

One reason why I love the Speed Champions despite not being much of a car aficionado is how LEGO apparently uses them the roll out new part designs. It’s easy to see why these cars are the perfect test case for new elements. Due to the size and space restrictions it becomes quickly apparent if something doesn’t add up, where newly created pieces would improve the look or all the same whether those new items actually work as desired. You can’t hide anything and flaws and issues reveal themselves during the development and prototyping phase. That’s probably why so far we haven’t seen too many real duds, as everything needs to make sense. If it doesn’t work at this small scale, it’s not going to be useful in other scenarios, if you get my drift. Where you could find workarounds using existing elements e.g. on the larger Icons car models you cannot cheat here.

The additions to the parts line-up are not necessarily revolutionary, but more along the lines of “Where have you been all these years?”. It’s more about closing gaps (figuratively and literally) in LEGO‘s element portfolio to solve specific design problems. One such piece is no doubt the 1 x 2 wedge tile (of course these handed items have matching opposite parts, but I’m only linking to one of the sides). Ever since the 2 x 2 triangle tile was introduced it became more and more clear that you needed another element to either extend the angled edges, cap off surrounding one stud wide tiles or create “watertight” tiling butting up to such a triangle. No doubt it will be pretty widespread soon enough, but for now you are getting them in Black, White, Dark Bluish Grey, Red, Orange and even Trans Red and Trans Yellow scattered across the sets discussed here, with the transparent variants acting as light imitations, apparently.

The most important novelty in my eyes is the 2 x 2 x 2/3 wedge slope. You could write it off as “just another curved slope”, but it solves a long-standing issue. If you care to dig deeper, New Elementary have included some design exploration about how it connects and blends different other curved slopes in their article on the BMW cars (as well as the other elements mentioned in this paragraph). This will do a lot to e.g. make trailing edges of aircraft or those Star Wars space ships a lot smoother, among other things. Even better it does so by not requiring a ton of extra room. Many of LEGO‘s slopes span large distances and this is clearly a disadvantage if you’re tight on space. COBI and other competitors have solved this conundrum in their own way long ago and it’s nice to see LEGO catching up here. This wedge slope could be what this other element did a few years ago for bricks with rounded tops. It comes in Black, White, Red and Blue in the different sets.

Another “nice to have” piece is the 1 x 4 wedge slope. Ever since the introduction of the smaller 1 x 2 version I had wondered when the big version would catch up. It will always be used a little less due to its space requirements, but it sure makes things look elegant. For now it comes in Black, White and Orange, but other colors have already been spotted in upcoming releases.

An element that has found many creative uses over the years is the 1 x 2 “cheese grater slope”. Even LEGO themselves have used it to fill gaps or to set a certain angle on hinge plates like for instance on the Vespa 125 (10298). That’s not because everyone loved the grille look, it’s simply because a regular smooth 1 x 2 slope didn’t exist. That has now at long last been rectified with the 1 x 2 smooth slope after MOC creators and many others have been begging for it for years. Within the trio of Speed Champion cars it appears in Black, White and Blue, but there is also a Bright Light Blue variant in the Harry Potter Flying Ford Anglia (76424).

An element that is slightly odd and on some level even bothers me is the 2 x 6 bracket. I fully get the intention – it is meant as a base element to cover the side walls of the cars while keeping them thin – but it is a bit too specific for my taste. I’m sure we will see uses outside the Speed Champions, but it only having two single-stud attachment points at the ends will always entail some potentially awkward building styles in order to properly lock those connections in place. On another level there also was nothing wrong with how this stuff was built in the past. I didn’t mind those sidewalls of the cars being a bit thicker last year when they were constructed from existing 1 x 1 x 2 and 1 x 2 x 2 brackets and a few plates and tiles. Maximizing interior space just doesn’t seem enough of a good excuse for yet another part design.

A few elements I rambled on about last year when they were new are of course also back. The mini SNOT brick appears in Black, Light Bluish Grey and, of all things, Light Aqua a color it can be found in notable quantities in the Retro Roller Skate (31148). The sharply pointed wedges make a return as does the smaller one of the circular canopy pieces.

Stickers

While every bit of labeling or decoration you see in the photos of the individual builds are prints, it goes without saying that they are not nearly covering even a fraction of the areas that show branding and sponsoring on the real vehicles, so there are of course tons of extra stickers. The annoying part is not just their large number, but also that many of them are supposed to be applied to small 1 x 2 elements and curved elements. This can be an exercise in patience in itself and if you do it for all the cars it adds a considerable extra workload. Since I still don’t care for putting up with any of this every bit of labeling and decorations you are going to see being present on the cars are therefore actual printed pieces.

LEGO Speed Champions, Ford Mustang Dark Horse (76920)

The Mustang is the most mundane car in this wave and that applies on multiple levels. Originally I didn’t even plan to buy it because it is kind of boring, but also pretty ugly. I only gave in when a good discounted offer came along and I figured “What the heck…”.

The model is of course not very attractive simply because the original isn’t, either, at least in my view. It has this very distinct American vibe that really only can appeal to car junkies obsessed with engine power. Interestingly enough it looks better in “friendly” colors like Red, but the Dark Blue and Black versions, which seem to be the factory default colors just turn me off. That said I can only reiterate that I’m anything but a car aficionado and thus my brain may just not be wired to find beauty in these vehicles. Others may totally think it’s the best and most beautiful car on the planet. I’m at least willing to concede to that.

As far as the model is concerned, it inevitably suffers from the limitations of what details you can recreate in bricks and this once more shows in the car looking very square. The real thing is pretty blocky, too (by today’s standards, not 1980s standards, naturally), but I think there would have been room for improvement. Circling back to my paragraph on the new parts it seems to me that designing the front section and the rear window area with those 1 x 4 wedge slopes would already have made it look a little less flat. I’m sure you could have found other areas for optimization as well.

An interesting solution is the designers’ approach to render the specific coating pattern on top of the front hood. It’s reminiscent of the anti-glare paint areas in front of the cockpit on airplanes and while I’m pretty sure it does not serve the same purpose and is just there for decoration it adds some interest. There also seem to be different versions of it, some flat, some glossy, some limited to the hood, some extending over the roof and so on. Anyway, since it’s built from bricks and tiles you could customize it to your liking and possibly even get rid of it entirely if you want to is what I’m trying to say here. Nice as that is, however, it also results in things looking fragmented. If you look too closely it begins to feel more and more like the real bonnet is missing and you are looking at a part of the engine block.

As mentioned earlier, every bit of decoration you see is genuinely printed and that is a good thing, but ultimately you cannot hope for too much. In typical LEGO fashion getting two elements that align properly is a matter of sheer luck and neither the two curved slopes with the front grille printed on nor the two identical 1 x 6 tiles for the rear light fall into that category. That could turn out completely differently for you and you could be just fine, though. Still, these inconsistencies are annoying, even more so since LEGO are very sparse in their use of prints in the first place.

One thing I haven’t quite gotten to grips with is the growing use of clip-based connections. This trend was already very visible last year and this year we are getting even more of it. The Mustang is a mild case, but even it uses this trickery for the lower lip of the front grille/ bumper and the rear light assembly. I admire it as a technical solution, especially when it comes to the surroundings that are used to fix the angle and prevent pieces from moving too much, which is quite a feat, but no matter what it also makes the models fragile. I would also predict that this affects long-term durability as clips are simply more prone to break off, in particular as they get older and more brittle.

The cockpit is nothing to write home about in this particular case and in a way it totally confirms my point about the new 2 x 6 bracket. If you have nothing to put in there, you don’t really need more room in your cockpit. The simplification of the build process is still a fair point that will be appreciated by less experienced users, but it’s a minor one. At this point LEGO instructions are “baby safe”, that is simplified so much that even a toddler could follow them, and building this sub-section would not have been much of a challenge even if it would be put together from multiple elements the old way.

A thing we need to discuss is the color of the canopy/ windshield elements and potentially other transparencies. No, I’m not concerned about some of those elements having been released in crazy colors like Trans Purple or Satin Trans Dark Blue in Friends and DreamZzz sets, but rather the mundane switch from the “old” Trans Black, now re-labeled as Trans Brown to the new version. This one is more neutral, leaning more into a cool bluish grey, which is just fine, but oddly enough it’s also a bit more dense/ opaque and thus, which is my point, makes it harder to view anything through it.

This is a recurring theme across all the sets in this article, but the Mustang makes a prime example for it, since the cockpit is particularly dark. It’s like the transparency pieces literally sucks the life out of it and absorbs all light as can be evidenced in the comparison photos where I dug out an old windshield piece to replace the new one. In this case the situation is further exacerbated by the car body being very dark and the human brain dialing down the perceived lightness even further. It doesn’t look nearly as drastic on the other cars and of course on a plain light background. Still, I would argue that you can see the stronger filtering even here.

LEGO Speed Champions, 2023 McLaren Formula 1 Car (76919)

I still follow Formula 1 to a degree despite it having become so boring (which I attribute to the excessive regulations and this therefore being more a battle of the engineers and stewards than an actual challenge of driving skills), so there’s some value in getting the cars as miniature models every now and then. The McLaren story is particularly interesting since after years in the dumps they have evolved into one of the teams that can actually compete with the dominance of Red Bull.

This isn’t the first rendition of one of their Formula 1 cars, but perhaps the better one. Last year’s Technic model of the 2022 version caught a lot of flak due to considerable inaccuracies and construction problems and though I haven’t actually built it, I can see where there might be issues by studying the instructions with my past knowledge of Technic at the back of my head.

Unfortunately they changed the color scheme for this season to include more Black, in part owing to their change in team sponsors, so the model is quite dark, even more so without stickers. I hope you can still see enough details despite my crappy camera seriously struggling with such high contrast scenarios.

If nothing else, this is perhaps the model where the new 1 x 4 curved wedge slopes yield the greatest payoff. The air box has this undercut shape with a very slim waist pulling in toward the center line and a lot of curved surfaces in all directions. It would be tricky to capture this shape otherwise. Not impossible, mind you, it would just not look as elegant e.g. with regular slopes that cut off with straight edges. This section is also fascinating and at the same time a bit tricky since it uses a complex SNOT technique where the wedges have to be plugged on without having been stabilized by an extra plate underneath.

The back ridge uses one of the clip-based tricks I hinted at in that the pointed wedges act like a vice that hold the orange ski in the middle. To that end they are clipped to some bars buried in the body on which they can slide. It works surprisingly well and even is sort of self-centering, so only minor adjustments should be necessary. That doesn’t change my opinion that eventually those prongs may go *ker-pling* and break off as they age, however. That, by the way, also applies to the rigid tubes used for the HALO system. Either they themselves or the clips and bars holding them may one day just give in.

A very pleasant new addition is the “proper” steering wheel. Sure, it’s still just the same game controller that was used already in a few sets, but at least now it has some numbers and dials printed on. This immediately makes things look more real. Speaking of real we also get printed rims and caps on the wheels.This elevates the model notably and along with the other prints immediately makes it look more real. To me it also hammers home a point: The discussion about having prints in place of stickers should probably be better rephrased as having a few significant prints where they matter and truly enhance the appearance and then the absence of more prints or not using stickers won’t be felt as dramatically. It’s basically all about cheating your perception into a state where you find things tolerable. LEGO seemingly not realizing this simple truth is likely the real tragedy here.

A final point specific to Formula 1 is the effort the designers went through to create a smooth underside. It’s not perfect by any means, but helps to convey the idea how little space there actually is between the chassis and the road.

LEGO Speed Champions, Audi S1 e-tron quattro (76921)

The nomenclature Audi uses still confuses me, as somehow it always appears that there are different cars, but they are all called the same. I actually had to do a bit of research to gain even a superficial understanding of what this is all about. This being a one-off and for the most part only official PR information and press photos being available didn’t really do much to enlighten me, but I’ll try my best no matter what.

The proportions of the model appear pretty wacky at first but if you do look it up, this is indeed how it looks. The car body has been stretched with all manner of wings and spoilers to provide enough down pressure to handle those 700 hp the electric motors generate. It makes the car look kind of ugly and bulky, though. Especially that front plate reminds me very much of a person with Prognathism (think Bubba from the Forrest Gump movie).

Out of the four packages discussed in this article this is the one with the most effective prints. Not by number necessarily, but in the way they contribute to the overall appearance due to covering large areas. Similar to the Formula 1 McLaren they are sufficient to not make the model look like it is missing something critical. That said, I would have loved if they had included the tiger stripes on the aft wing and sides. This always stands out on photos.

Models based on conventional cars have the advantage of the assembly being pretty straightforward and conventional itself. If you have ever built another Speed Champions kit you won’t find any surprises here. The only real “magic” is employed in the aft section where there is some sideways building in the direction of the car’s rear to sneak in those red stripes. They could just as well have said “Screw it!” and relied on yet another sticker, so props to that on the part of the designers.

Though I had some concerns about the front extension and indeed it does feel a bit flimsy during the build process, it ultimately is a very robust build. It just takes a moment for everything to fall into place. These days it’s often just difficult to grasp the way some things are constructed due multiple changes in building direction and using a lot of small elements. The aft spoiler/ wing is also stable enough, though you should be careful with those triangular plates. They only hang on two studs and come off easily, a general weakness with this particular element.

The cockpit is built in the old style without the new 2 x 6 bracket as a backing for the sides and illustrates that this works just as well under many conditions. Otherwise it looks and feels a bit barren. I think this is mostly due to the absence of the actual headrests and the pointed slopes being a very limited representation of the actual seating arrangement which is more shaped like a trough.

LEGO Speed Champions, BMW M4 GT3 & BMW M Hybrid V8 (76922)

Before even delving into other details, allow me to spell out one thing right out of the gate: This is easily the least favorite package with regards to how the car’s paint pattern is represented. Yes, there’s all the differently colored pieces to represent that unusual digital camouflage/ shard pattern, but there’s only a handful of small prints. If you need even further evidence then just look at the sticker sheets. There’s three of them (two large ones for each car’s body, a small one with transparent backing to supplement the canopy on the M Hybrid) and that translates to largest sticker sheets = least number of prints. Now of course if I put on my engineering hat and think my way through this I think I understand why. The logistics of having printed elements in so many colors could be a nightmare, including potential quality and alignment issues. However, that still seems like a poor excuse to not at least print some more pieces.

The patchwork pattern makes the cars look like prototype models where you just focus on capturing the shape and working out engineering problems. This is often down by MOC designers and even professional model developers. Sometimes it’s intentional – the different colors help to discern different sub-assemblies or detect critical issues – other times it’s merely that you do not have all elements in the intended final color, but want to make progress while waiting for that Bricklink order or for the production of a new recolored piece to be approved, respectively. Unfortunately the strong contrast also means that my cheap camera struggled a lot, so despite my efforts to account for that with some color corrections the photos don’t look that great.

The M4 is more or less a conventional build that doesn’t offer any big challenges. You have kind of built this same car with a few variations a few times over the years if you always get the latest Speed Champions and you will keep doing so in the future. Aside from the specific details to differentiate the cars this could probably be labeled as a “standard” build where you can predict how it’s built without even looking much at the instructions.

The car livery inevitably causes a bit of confusion. It’s put together like a quilted bed cover and that can be confusing and a bit frustrating. For one you have to be careful to not mix up the Dark Azure and actual Blue pieces in many situations and all the same you have pay attention to not use the wrong version where there are left and right handed pieces. My hamster brain also was constantly looking for pairs of these elements when in fact you e.g. only have the right side version of the new 1 x 2 wedge tile in Red.

This car is also where the transparent versions of said tiles are used for the front and rear lights. The tiny BMW logo on the side of a 1 x 2 plate is also one of the few prints. An interesting detail I forgot to mention is the exhaust/ cooling assembly at the right side at the front of the cockpit. Parts of it are just “boxed in” without any actual stud connections, which also was a bit confusing during the build.

The cockpit is a highlight. It emulates the typical reinforcement structures found in these touring race cars – the transversal front to back beam as well as some of the additional tubing installed. It also further nicely communicates how crammed the insides are with some printed tiles and slopes that stand in for the various fuse boxes, onboard computer systems, fuel management and so on. You have to indeed pay some attention to aligning them suitably or else some of the bits and pieces will not fit correctly.

For the V8 Hybrid pretty much the same points apply, though it’s more stretched out design exposes even larger White areas that suffer even more from not using the stickers or being printed. Following the line of thinking established by the Formula 1 car and the Audi I think that printing the big banner/ flag piece and the two wedges at its front would have already massively made things more interesting and varied.

The front intake is the only other area on this model aside from the upper edge of the canopy where a visible print is used. A tiny 1 x 1 tile imitates the curvature of the typical BMW “kidney” pattern, but of course in typical LEGO fashion it suffers from the shortcomings of their printing methodology. Not only do those two tiny black bows not extend fully to the edges but also are the edges themselves not printed, either. If you squint your eyes it blends with the actual hollows and the illusion works, but if you look too closely it doesn’t.

The cockpit is again sparse, but if you are keeping count it contains the third instance of the new printed steering wheel. On the right hand side you can also see how it uses studded elements to create the narrow raised ridge on the sides. It’s one of the few more special techniques on an otherwise very conventional model if you don’t count the large ridge and the somewhat dubious 1 x 1 tile on the heck spoiler.

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Concluding Thoughts

I’ll always defend the Speed Champions for enawing me with fascinating building techniques and feeding my obsession for new element designs, but  at the same time time they have me going “Why, LEGO, why?” year after year because a few things rile me up.

On the positive side it seems that people’s demands for more printed pieces are being heard, if only on a limited basis. Even more important than this mere fact is that prints are not limited to straight tiles, basic slopes and windshields anymore and they try to incorporate larger items. As I said multiple times already it often only takes a few stand-out items to be decorated and then you can get away with not having to print every tiny details. On the other hand I’m still dismayed how they played things cheap on the BMW double set despite my understanding for the technical intricacies and caveats.

Another pet peeve remain the wheels and wheel housings. I mentioned this last year that instead of re-engineering existing designs I wish they would come up with some more contemporary designs for the wheel wells, perhaps even with nice rounded transitions to the connecting straight areas. Likewise, I think at this point after several Formula 1 and Formula E cars it should be a no-brainer to have a set of proper tires for them, that is in particular larger rear tires. It doesn’t even need to be super realistic, just enough to communicate the proportions. I’m not even dreaming of proper Intermediates or rain tires with profile, though that would be cool and add even more finesse.

On their merits of how “real” and enjoyable the models are I would likely only recommend the McLaren Formula 1 and the Audi e-tron. They just strike the right balance of looking realistic enough and not having sacrificed too many details to the limitations imposed by brick-building. The other two packages do not come close to capturing this, though for fans of the respective brands of followers of the various racing series they compete in they will be just as relevant or even more interesting. The Mustang and the BMWs were a tad too boring and/ or chaotic and outside my ambitions as an amateur reviewer and parts OCD I wouldn’t necessarily have bought them.

Comes the Inquisitor – LEGO Star Wars Magazine, May 2024

Another month has flown by and here we are again having a look at the LEGO Star Wars magazine. Will the May 2024 issue be a winner or a looser? Let’s find out!

I pulled the title of this article from on of the episodes my favorite sci-fi series ever, Babylon 5, and it’s absolutely fitting for the comic. The Inquisitors have only recently been popularized again to mainstream audiences in the Ahsoka, Kenobi and The Mandalorian series on Disney+, though technically they’ve always been part of the grander Star Wars canon and appeared before in games, comics etc.. Unless you are a super nerd who’s deep into exploring all the lore however, you probably haven’t heard much about them. In a way that’s also appropriate, since they’re meant to be a super secret small elite.

Anyway, the first comic has Vader and the Grand Inquisitor getting their bums whacked in an old temple cave after engaging with some rogue Jedi Padawans. Naturally the setting and characters are very much in the white/ grey/ black spectrum, but at least we’re getting some pink hair in addition to the colored light saber blades and the comic overall is drawn very dynamic.

The second story has Grogu and The Mandalorian a.k.a. Din Djarin getting involved in some insect related hijinx, but once more it feels a bit too forced to be believable, even if the little green goblin has been known to get up to all sorts of mischief.

The front poster is okay, depicting the already mentioned Inquisitors, or more correctly a part of the team by ways of the Third Sister, Fifth Brother and Grand Inquisitor. It’s tasteful enough, just not particularly interesting. The back side goes all in on the 25th anniversary of LEGO Star Wars and manages to sneak in references to the soon to be released new sets for the Sith Infiltrator and the pod race diorama for Episode I – The Phantom Menace by showing us the old versions from back then. Unfortunately it’s done very poorly and the whole thing looks like an amateur job done by a beginner for a few bucks on Fiverr.

Moving on to the extra, this time we don’t get a minifigure. After four of them in a row the streak of minifigures has been interrupted with a more mundane brick-built model. But fear not! Next month there’s going to be another little guy included and a somewhat special one at that, so you’re going to love it. Anyway, the model in question is The Mandalorian‘s stripped down N-1 Starfighter. There is apparently also a regular set for it (75325), but it’s hopelessly overpriced and failed to impress me due to being rather simplistic and not very faithful to the original, so I never bought it.

The miniature version isn’t particularly realistic, either, but that is to be expected on some level due to the low number of pieces. I guess my biggest peeve is the lack of any rounded corners, which makes the model look very square. There aren’t any parts that are too special, but if you haven’t encountered the revised pin hinge plates in a set yet then here’s your introduction to them. There’s also the 2 x 6 wedge plates that still are surprisingly elusive.

As much as I prefer buildable models over minifigures, but even when I saw the preview last month I wasn’t too pumped about this issue and this has been more or less confirmed. Funny enough the comics are decent enough this time, but the rest is the usual lackluster mish-mash that just doesn’t elevate this magazine to a level where I’d feel good about it. Somehow things just never come together in a consistent manner.

Donatello in da House? – LEGO Jurassic World Magazine, April 2024

The LEGO Jurassic World magazine keeps trucking along despite the series it is based on seems to have hit yet another slump and doesn’t show much progress in terms of new and interesting sets with no movies in sight that could reinvigorate the theme. Whether this has any long-term effect on the publication remains to be seen, but for now let’s review the April 2024 issue.

The comic plays out at night, so it’s very blue-ish just like established in the Hollywood trope, which of course is just a fake when they shoot day-for-night. It starts out with a late evening roller coaster ride shortly before the park’s closing going awry after some dinosaurs escape and cause mayhem. If the roller coaster looks a bit all too familiar your eyes are indeed not betraying you. It really is the larger Roller Coaster (10261) that came out a few years ago. They just recolored it to disguise it and make it blend in with the rest of the setting. Unfortunately as a result everything is a bit too bright for a night scene and the colors tend to drift into desaturated tones just like they do into those movies if you’re not applying heavy color corrections. I would have preferred a bit more contrast, as of course e.g. red colors turn almost immediately black in low light conditions.

The story is your run-off-the-mill chase, but of course the heroes emerge victorious and take down the evil dinosaurs. Conveniently those are blue Allosaurii fitting with the overall color scheme and they are being hunted down by blue cars and helicopters. It’s all a bit too much. Some more variation wouldn’t have hurt.

The posters are a bit of a inconsistent mishmash. The back side has Owen and his team of trained Velociraptors being chased, but this time not by a T-Rex, but rather a Stygimoloch. The front takes a play at Dr. Wu’s Lab (75939) and includes a few references to the original first Jurassic Park movie such as Mr. DNA, but it feels a bit too wild for my taste. There’s also a stark contrast between the bright yellow contrast and the somewhat murky 3D-rendered parts.

The extra is for the most part not worth going much into details. After all, it’s just another spin on a miniature helicopter/ gyrocopter and we had several of those over the years across different series, be it Jurassic World itself, City or others. Likewise by now we all probably would agree that nobody likes Owen enough to be desperate for another minifigure of him. With all that in mind we are left with the little Velociraptor as the only stand-out item and that one is a treat. It’s a new print design and just like its bigger brother in the last issue so far it has only appeared in the Baby Dinosaur Rescue Center (76963) that came out earlier this year. And yes, I couldn’t help it, but the purple headband in conjunction with the rounded shape makes it look like Donatello from the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated TV show that I used to watch when I was younger.

Compared to some of the previous issues this one feels a bit under-cooked. The extra is underwhelming and unfortunately the rest isn’t too exciting. if it wasn’t for little Donatello it would probably be a complete letdown. The good news however is that there’s always hope for the next one and judging from the preview page this could indeed be the case. We surely will find out here in a few weeks… 😉

Cry Wolf – LEGO Minecraft Magazine, April 2024

As you may remember, I wasn’t too enthused about the last issue of the LEGO Minecraft magazine, so things could only get better from there. Whether the April 2024 is an improvement we shall find out in this review, so let’s get right into it.

The “green sea” paradox, that is Minecraft predominantly using a single shade of green for everything plant-like, be that grass or trees, is once more at play here and so we get a lot of that in the comic. It’s not as bad as I make it sound, though, as there are indeed a few panels with other colors taking center stage plus even the green scenes are nice because the artists responsible for this edition work with color variations and gradient shading.

The story revolves around Alex adopting and taming a wolf and then some madness ensues with the creature meeting its brethren and the due getting engaged in some fights, but at least it’s not just the old “character vs. skeletons or zombies” thing. One thing that bugs me, though, is how fragmented everything is. The flow is interrupted by puzzles and other games or ads on almost every second page.

The posters are not very attractive unfortunately. The one with the big ghost and the red background is tolerable, but what can you say? It is, after all, just a big white cube. A more zoomed out perspective with perhaps some lava fountains in the background would have made this more interesting. This is the reverse side, by the way, since the front is pretty much a complete fail. I mean Steve with his Dark Azure torso in Medium Azure armor and a sword of the same color in front of some bluish ice/ diamond thingy? C’mon, Blue Ocean, you can’t be serious?!

The extra is a marked improvement over the scraps we got last time. Of course it features the wolf shown in the comic. Animal heads are always nice to have and this one hasn’t been produced since 2018, with even used examples on Bricklink fetching a relatively high price, so there’s definitely some value in getting a new piece in a mag. The rest is okay and there’s a decent volume of stuff due to the larger plate and a few bits and bobs.

Overall this is one of the more satisfying issues and if some more thought would have gone into the posters and a few other small things it could have been pretty good. The highlight is of course the wolf. If you always wanted one for your Minecraft layout, this is a simple way to get the necessary pieces.

Hamster Double – LEGO Creator, Hamster Wheel (31155) and LEGO Friends, Hamster Playground (42621)

As you know, for smaller sets that thematically have something in common I like to consolidate them into a single combined review even if they are from different LEGO series/ sub-themes and this is one of those situations. As my headline already implies this is all about hamsters and to that end we’re going to have a look at the Creator 3in1 Hamster Wheel (31155) as well as the Friends Hamster Playground (42621). I also haven’t seen too many reviews of these sets, so perhaps this article is even more useful as an alternate take.

Contents and Pricing

The first major struggle you may be facing with both packages is to where actually buy them. at least here in Germany they are semi-exclusive, which means that aside from the official LEGO stores you can only buy them from a handful of other retailers. Consequently the overall price level is high, meaning it adheres to the official MSRP most of the time except when there is a limited special promotion like during pre-Easter season just recently for instance. For the Hamster Wheel this translates to 30 Euro for 416 pieces. On paper that doesn’t sound too bad, but within the Creator 3in1 series it’s not the most cost-effective offering and as you may be able to guess from the photo that further skews into unfavorable territory when you consider the volume of stuff. More on that later.

The Friends Hamster Playground comes with 167 pieces for 20 Euro, which also leans towards the more costly side of things. Generally, though, I feel more positive here as it doesn’t break that psychological 20 Euro barrier. That always makes it easier to swallow. Of course it also helps that I actually got this for 14 Euro during one of those promotions at a drugstore.

Hamster Wheel (31155)

No hamster wheel without hamsters, so let’s first have a look at the little critters themselves. they are constructed from a bunch of curved slopes (mostly), with some SNOT bricks providing the underpinnings. It’s quite minimalist, but perfectly sufficient. Of particular note in terms of pieces are the rounded corner bricks in Dark Bluish Grey and Medium Nougat. They are very rare, being that so far they have only appeared in the Star Wars helmets collection with the grey ones featured in the Luke Skywalker (Red Five) Helmet (75327) and the brown one in Princess Leia (Boushh) Helmet (75351). 

The contraption on the left is a special little “cart” required to make the hamsters slide inside the wheel. The irony here is that the creatures already have the small skateboard wheels on their undersides. They are used to slide around easily and this works just fine. They incidentally also already have the correct width. However, their diameter is just a tiny bit too small and they’re buried too deep inside the body, so they don’t provide enough contact with the rails of the wheel, necessitating this extra gadget.

The food bowl is the same basic build we also got in the Adorable Dogs (31137), only in different colors. Funny enough history is repeating the for the rounded 3 x 3 bricks. Back then it was new in Lavender and here it has another premiere in Orange. That alone is a worthwhile addition as of course inevitably my OCD about having every piece in every possible color it exists in my personal parts collection gets more than just slightly tickled by this.

The same is utterly and totally true for the dish-shaped round brick used on the bell. For the time being this is also the first and only time it appeared in a set, making it another highly desirable exclusive item. The drink feeder on the other hand is super mundane and built from two half cylinders in Trans Light Blue, a matching 4 x 4 dish and a few other pieces. Even though it is genuinely boxed in in the crevice under the slide, it’s still easily accessible. The photo just gives a wrong impression due to the optical distortion.

The wheel is assembled from two of the large round supports that were introduced in the last two years. You can easily find them in a multitude of odd (and thus perhaps not that useful) colors in the rather unpopular City Stuntz sets and they are cheap on Bricklink. If Lime Green doesn’t do it, Orange and Dark Purple are there for you. The three-spoked connection to the central hub/ axle is very robust, the transversal connections bridging the gap not so much. As you can see the holes on the outer circumference don’t line up properly and the truth of the matter simply is that the 2 x 6 tiles used are just not very stable. I therefore managed to break the wheel and when I reassembled it didn’t pay attention to matching the holes again correctly. In light of my experience this is the part that I would completely re-engineer to have a much stronger connection and I also see this as the biggest hindrance to playing with the wheel. If you swirl it around too hard, it breaks. As is evident little extra cart works, though due to the uneven weight distribution the hamsters never correctly sit in the center.

The actual hamster house, if you will, is really just that – a basic four-sided house/ pavilion on a large central support structure just like a tree house. The only thing worth mentioning about the enclosure itself are the two inverted arches in Light Aqua. Aside from The Enchanted Treehouse (43215) in the Disney range this set is the only package to feature them. It’s one of my favorite LEGO colors, so I’m a happy snapper to get those, too. The slide attached to the building is what you probably think it is – just a bunch of different plates, some short, some long, plugged together and capped off with the slopes.

The support structure is surprising in that it is quite elaborate and a bit convoluted. The reason for this is that the set barely contains any brackets and thus all perpendicular connections have to be created either with conventional stacking of pieces, clips latching onto bars or said bars plugging into hollowed out studs. A few Technic pins are also at play. As a nerdy guy that is fascinated by clever engineering solutions I welcome this and almost admire it, but it’s admittedly a bit confusing during the assembly. You know, at certain points you wonder whether they forgot to include those brackets because there’s a direction change and only later realize the ingenuity of some solutions. It’s not as straightforward and apparent and often there are multiple steps in-between before literally everything clicks (together). I was also a bit worried that there would be too much stress on some of the clip connections, but since everything is a butt fit and sits flush with surrounding bricks its actually pretty robust.

Alternative Models

Since this is a 3in1 package, there are of course alternative models you can assemble. Personally I haven’t built them because they looked a bit too similar to the first one and I also wasn’t motivated enough to go through the drill of disassembling the model and rebuilding it into the new variants two times. Due to my health issues time is getting more and more limited and such repetitive tasks have become a bit of a burden. If the set was cheaper and I simply had bought a second one this might have turned out differently. Anyway, judging from the available photos and digital building instructions those are just fine and it is ultimately merely a matter of which animal you prefer. The cat and mouse look particularly cute and I might even build them from my own parts eventually just for the fun of it.

Hamster Playground (42601)

Though the subject is the same, LEGO Friends takes a completely different approach to that hamster thing. Unusually, though, there’s a clear emphasis on actual physical play here, not just pretty rooms and buildings. By that I mean that you can actually slide and roll stuff around versus the usual puppet house approach of placing your minidolls and having minimal interactions with some props or animals.

Speaking of which – for this set we get two of those figures. One of them is a known capacity with Zac, the other is yet another new named character called Jamila. I have a general dislike for giving out those names in the first place and flooding sets with more insignificant side characters, many of which often really only appear a single time, makes even less sense. I already dread the day when Bricklink spits out endlessly long lists with all those one-offs. I’m also gonna say it right away: For this particular set not a single human character was actually needed. Sure, you can argue that there has to be at least one caretaker, but it just doesn’t add anything to the play fantasy since the main heroes are the hamsters, anyway.

Those hamsters come as a trio and the good news is that they are all fresh versions. The Orange one is a completely new item since the little guy has never appeared in this color before. The other two already existed with respect to their body color, but the face prints are new. The Tan guy only appears in one other package and the others are completely exclusive to this one. You see, there’s some value here and just buying this set could get you some “rare” animals.

There are a few separate extras, though they bear significance for the actual play value. That is those two balls do. They are of course actually fishbowl helmet pieces for minifigures, but have been used for other things like the small silver ball (control knob) on The Child (75318). The Trans Orange version is new in this set. that notwithstanding even the “plain” Trans Clear ones have their value, since LEGO really, really, really uses them very rarely and thus they sell at hefty prices. If you want to fix an old minifig or plan on creating a custom astronaut those four shells would cost you half the price of this whole set. Their actual purpose in this context is of course entirely different: You are supposed to put your hamsters inside and roll them down the tube. That almost makes me wish they had some funky spiral print or such, but you can’t have everything, I guess. 😉

As can easily be determined the playground itself is based around a sunflower theme and so there’s plenty of yellow and brown shades and a prevalent “sun wheel” style to how elements are placed and it’s reinforced by the parts usage. There are tons of yellow leaves peeking out and being arranged radially with brown centers for the “seeds.” If that wasn’t enough, even the 1 x 1 round tile in the food bowl has them printed on. For now another element exclusively available with this model. That also applies to the big leafy branch element previously found in Bright Green and Lavender in other sets (see my reviews of Olly and Paisley’s Family Houses [42620] and the Vintage Fashion Store [42614]). The goodness doesn’t end there and so we also get two more inverted round corner plates in Yellow like I talked about in the Flowers in Watering Can (31149) article. Of less relevance to most people, simply because those elements mostly appeared in sets that were pretty unattractive (overpriced, yet sparse like the Water Park [41720] for instance), will be the water slide tubes in Trans Orange and the associated tube connector in Dark Orange. They’re nice to have, but somewhat limited in their usage. The curved panels used to construct the running wheel fare much better in that department. They started out as jet intakes on the UCS X-Wing Starfighter (75335) but have now been used in a handful of sets to shape rounded walls and such. 

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Concluding Thoughts

In their own weird and wonderful way both sets are quite nice, though clearly they target different audiences. If I had to choose, though, I’d go with the Friends offering. It just has more of this “crafted with love” touch and overall just feels more like someone invested his heart. The 3in1 set by comparison feels bland. It just hasn’t too many fine details and it doesn’t even try to go the extra mile. It lacks something that would make you go “Aww, that’s cute!” like some interior in the hamster house or some toys like a ball. In relation to the price it’s really not the best deal. In fairness however one must admit that it could be more suitable for younger kids. Everything is a lot larger and you don’t have to worry that some tiny 1 cm tall hamster figure might get lost under the bed.

Cat Mayhem – LEGO Best Friends Magazine, April 2024

Unfortunately the distribution kerfuffle for the regular LEGO Friends magazine I laid out in my last review of the LEGO Friends – Best Friends magazine persists. It’s really frustrating to know that the mag is still being published like before, just not available in my region due to the distributor having messed up. It’s not that I expect anything marvelous, it’s just that odd feeling of missing out and having a hole in my blogging schedule. Anyway, before I fall into another rant let’s move on and work with what we have.

The April 2024 edition follows the same pattern as the previous one. Regrettably there is zero improvement on the quality of the comic, that is it’s colors. Something is seriously wrong with the methodology employed by Blue Ocean to convert the 3D rendered RGB colors to print separations and it all looks murky as hell while other colors like the Coral in the diner scene (see the Heartlake Downtown Diner [41728] review for reference) are completely blown out and look like a very bright, but flat red. I mean I can admit that I’m doing my photos the lazy way with a not so great camera and under plain daylight and spend way too much time fixing my own mess with color corrections, but I’d still claim that most of my pictures don’t look half as terrible. It’s a paid product and as someone who knows the craft I would expect a professional conversion and clean results.

The posters are okay-ish with the front one depicting Paisley strumming her guitar and the back side showing a cut out photo of a cat. Funny enough this even reinforces the misery/ tragedy of the regular Friends magazine being MIA. It, too has a similar combination and the posters would complement each other nicely. I bet if you have access to both you couldn’t avoid getting both, especially with your kids nagging you about it.

The extra has the “posh” cat that was introduced in last years very elusive Cat Hotel (41742) and also coincidentally was the on hiding under the corner of the roof in Olly’s House. So for me it’s not a new version, but since it so far has only been in a handful of sets it may be for many. Either way, not the worst choice. Interestingly, the extra also offers some good value with the other parts. The 1 x 1 x 2 SNOT brick used for the “speakers” has only been introduced in Medium Azure earlier this year (though given how excessively LEGO use this color one would have thought it has existed for years) and the other highlight are the 2 x 2 tiles with the round cut-outs. They’re still relatively rare and thus expensive. At the time of writing those four tiles would be worth 1 Euro alone and therefore just buying the mag could be considered a good investment.

My inner self is still burning with a sense of dissatisfaction over the other Friends mag being AWOL and as I was writing this short review thoughts about it kept creeping into my mind. This would have made a perfect combination this month and I would probably have been a lot happier. As it is, this one on its own is serviceable, but not great. It is once more saved by the extra, but of course I say that all the time. The rest is okay, even if it’s clear that a lot more polish is needed to make this really nice and consistent.

C’mon, Chewy! – LEGO Star Wars Magazine, April 2024

Time flies not just when you are having fun and for whatever reason I find myself oddly busy lately, barely even being able to just sit down and write a few lines for my articles. That’s why the latest LEGO Star Wars magazine coming out so soon almost feels a bit inconvenient timing-wise. Then again of course the Easter weekend is only a few days away and inevitably holidays always mess with the release schedule. Anyway, before I keep rambling on further let’s have a look at the April 2024 issue.

The comic almost automatically scores points for not being the umpteenth spin on Vader or Palpatine causing mayhem on the Death Star. instead we’re getting a young Luke Skywalker honing his skills on a training planet. Of course there’s still some chaos, but of a different kind.

The second comic share the somewhat uniform coloring with the first comic and where that one is mostly green, we here get everything drenched in autumn colors. In fact it’s almost a bit too homogeneous, considering that the bat-nosed creatures and Chewbacca are also very brown-ish. At any rate, the comics are both fine in their own right with interesting panels, dynamic perspectives and a good rendition of motion.

The posters are both a run-off-the-mill affair, with the front depicting the classic characters as heads of the rebel alliance and the back featuring a similar arrangement of some dark side counterparts. The positive thing here is that unlike so many times the artwork hasn’t been ruined with egregious editing or the text treatments being too exaggerated, so both versions are perfectly acceptable if a tad boring.

The extra is everyone’s favorite Wookiee as a minifigure and Chewbacca even comes with his iconic bow caster. The figure itself isn’t anything special, but then again how could it? Unfortunately neither LEGO nor the actual canonical media ever do much with the furry guy and his brethren, so there isn’t much to draw on in terms of different looks for Chewy himself or for that matter some companions from his species in different colors. As a result, the minifigure is the most basic one and doesn’t represent a particularly high value nor a coveted specialty.

Overall this is an okay issue, but it’s nothing earth-shattering, either. Unlike previous editions that were desirable for their minifigures alone there just isn’t anything here that would be an urgent reason to get the magazine. And did I mention that they ramped up the price yet again by another 50 Cent? That makes it even harder to commit to such average issues.

Neon Chopper – LEGO City, Emergency Rescue Helicopter (60405)

I don’t buy too many LEGO City sets and even less do I review them here except when they fit an overarching theme like those special truck and vans. It’s not that I’m per se against it, but something like the Burger Truck (60404), which I actually bought (okay set, just nothing special) don’t have too much meat on their bones, in a manner of speaking, to warrant a review. The other side of it is that sometimes I keep agonizing over potential purchases like the Deep-Sea Explorer Submarine (60379) and then never commit because on a rational level it’s not worth it. You know, it looks like a nice set and I would love to have the big shark and some of the pieces, but at the same time I don’t want to pay the high price and end up with a lot of “junk” like the large aircraft hull pieces used. So my relation to City certainly is complicated, which makes it even more surprising and almost worth celebrating when I fall in love with one of the offerings like the Emergency Rescue Helicopter (60405) that shall be the subject of this article.

Price and Contents

I know I keep beating this horse to death (if it isn’t dead already), but how LEGO decides on the prices of their sets is a mystery deeper than finding exotic matter particles in the universe. This set is once more proof that it’s totally arbitrary, just in a different way than you may think. Usually I keep complaining about the products being too expensive, but this is just the opposite. It’s almost ridiculously cheap and given my critical view of these things I don’t say that lightly.

The set comes in at 20 Euro for 226 pieces, which feels quite normal at first, but things get even better. In a recent flash sale I saw it go for 10 Euro, but even with “only” regular discounts you can get this for 12 Euro. That’s not too far off from some of the smaller sets in the 10 Euro range like the Fire Rescue Helicopter (60411), but of course those half half the number of elements and the models are also smaller. The point here is that you are getting a pretty big helicopter (around 35 cm long, 30 cm main rotor diameter) made from some chunky pieces and three minifigures when in other sets you get a whole lot less. Again, one has to wonder how such drastic differences are even possible in LEGO land.

The Figures

Sometimes the minifigures in City sets manage to surprise with interesting details and elaborate “rare” prints, but this isn’t the case here. Aside from the foot pieces for the medics all the pieces are or have been available in other sets for a while now and at the end of the day the rescue personnel are just sort of construction workers in different colors. The extra hair pieces by now are a welcome standard feature to substitute the helmets, but aside from the hiker’s emergency signal torch there are no extras. I particularly miss a dog, either a rescue dog or a companion for the hiker. It’s not essential and wouldn’t necessarily be “realistic”, but it would be a nice touch.

The Helicopter

I took a liking to this set because of course the helicopter is immediately recognizable as an EC 135/ 145 series, one the most common type of rescue helicopter found in many European countries at this point. I live halfway between the regional readiness flight base and a large hospital, so I see those choppers regularly zipping over my head. The Autobahn is also not too far away and on several occasions I’ve also seen the helicopters land on the lawn nearby and picking up patients. So I guess I’m somewhat familiar with the beast (my general interest in aviation undeniably also being a factor). However, the color scheme isn’t anywhere near the red/ white and yellow versions we have and appears to be more based on actual police helicopters, in particular with the alternating Neon Yellow stripe pattern being very reminiscent of British emergency vehicles.

Of course the model isn’t anywhere near a perfect replica, but the overall proportions are close enough. A big factor are the curved wedge pieces used to emulate the upper engine covers. It’s like they were made for this and this is basically the first time the sleek appearance of this section has been approximated reasonably well. A similar statement could be made about the windshield/ canopy. It’s a new mold and for the time being this set is the only one using it, but I’m positive we’ll see it being used elsewhere in no time. It’s a very flat piece, yet its curvature oddly enough fits perfectly when mounted at an angle. All that’s missing are matching side windows if you don’t want yet another piece that has integrally molded closed sides. 

Since this is first and foremost a playable model aimed at a younger crowd there inevitably are a few other such compromises. The most visible is the complete absence of side doors. that would not only be a major security risk but also rather inconvenient with the cold airflow and down wash from the rotor. This is also one of the areas where I have a minor peeve. The “stairs” are constructed from respective brackets and not fixated well. They only connect with the upper half and there’s no extra plates or slopes to secure them in place, so inevitably you may break them off when grabbing the model in that section. That seems completely unnecessary as there would have been multiple easy ways to avoid this problem.

As a play-friendly model there aren’t too many details to speak of, but there’s at least a basic cockpit interior and the rear door can be opened to slide in the stretcher with the patient. The winch on the side is interesting insofar they went through the trouble of creating a dedicated new rope element for it with the string in Neon Yellow. The other item of note are the pieces used for the air intakes/ sand filters. They are actually based on the cupcake piece long established in the Friends and Disney series that itself is a revision/ updated piece derived from the old Friends kitchen accessories. Having this element in Light Bluish Grey could have a ton of uses from lamp shades to air ventilation hubs.

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Concluding Thoughts

I quite like the model for what it is meant to be. Aside from my own aspirations as an aviation aficionado who likes the appearance it’s very kids-friendly as well. The helicopter is reasonably robust and very “swooshable”, meaning it can be grabbed on the main body or even the tail boom without immediately falling apart. The only concern is that it could be a bit too large and unwieldy for smaller kids and the main rotor might get in the way. The play value is further enhanced by everything being very accessible. The rear door/ hatch can be opened as can the cockpit and the missing side doors allow immediate access to the cabin. And then of course the price. Can you really go wrong for 12 Euro or less? I would highly recommend this set.

Clowns and Cookies – LEGO Dreamzzz Magazine, March 2024

It clearly feels like LEGO DreamZzz doesn’t really take off in the way the company may have wanted. There’s just not enough buzz around it. The magazine only being published every two months definitely doesn’t help, either. If I wasn’t meticulously keeping track of the publishing dates in my calendar I’d probably forget about it and be surprised at the newsstand. Now that it’s here let’s see whether the March 2024 issue can do something to spark interest.

For a series that itself is built on the premise of connecting a fantasy world with the real one the comics so far have been surprisingly mundane and leaning on the real part way too much, so the wild Candyland imagery took me by surprise when I flipped through the pages the first time. It also bears no connection to the sets you can buy (but it may show up in the animated series), so I was a bit unprepared. That said, of course not everything as it seems and upon closer inspection this is one of those “weird for weird’s sake” situations that ultimately covers up a weak story with flamboyant colors. It’s a bit like when Lloyd has daydreams in Ninjago and nothing really happens.

The story is embedded into a nighttime real world scenario and once we move on to that things become pretty lackluster. The drab colors are one thing, but also the way the panels are drawn suddenly shifts into boring mode. The story about the stolen cake loses a lot of its appeal therefore.

The poster is a one on one rendition of the extra, that is Mateo escaping the hordes of evil guys with his jet pack. More on the specifics further down. The reverse has the very prominent hourglass shape with groups of the good guys and bad guys in the respective top and bottom halves. It’s of course a play on the hourglass and the sand of time as a factor in how you can visit the fantasy world. Both posters feel a bit overstuffed, but are more or less okay in terms of their graphical design. 

As already mentioned extra is another version of Mateo. Three issues in it’s perhaps not yet anything to be alarmed about like another German review wrote, but of course there’s always the chance we’ll end up with buckets of the same minifigure just like we did with Jack in Hidden Side or Owen in Jurassic World. This version distinguishes itself from the others by ways of the jet pack, which is a little build not found in any of the commercial sets. It’s probably not the most compelling reason to get the magazine, but at least they tried to come up with something unique. The interesting point to make here is of course that it could have been more desirable with a few recolored parts. Those droid arms and pistol pieces haven’t been done in certain colors, either not at all or in a long while, and it would have added some incentive to buy the issue if they were Orange or something like that.

As implied throughout the article this issue of the LEGO DreamZzz magazine isn’t anything you need to lose any sleep over. It’s okay within the context of the series and since it’s only the fourth edition it doesn’t yet feel all too repetitive, but of course there’s room for improvement. I’m happy to report that this seems to be the case for the next one which will feature a reasonably complex build of the Z-Blob robot, so there is some hope.