Explorer-ing… Space – again – LEGO Explorer Magazine, April 2023

Regrettably with Ehapa having thinned out their publishing schedule here in Germany we missed out on the issue with the polar bear, but at least here we are again with another space-themed edition.

The central theme of this particular issue is more or less NASA and their efforts with the space shuttle and various of their rockets being front and center. A lot of it is, however, explained based on the LEGO models, not actual photos of the real thing or illustrations. For the intended target audience that’s okay and especially the NASA Space Shuttle Discovery (10283) is pretty detailed, but of course more images depicting the genuine article would be welcome.

The comic likewise deals with the professor trying to reach new heights, but rather than rockets he does so with stacks of bricks and a balloon.

The poster is nice, even in a nerdy way. It has the landing locations of the various moon missions marked out. If it wasn’t for the LEGO stuff it could almost pass as a scientific poster.

The extra is a small version of the space shuttle including its launch package (i.e. the large fuel tank and boosters). It looks a bit odd since it has no vertical tail fin and of course the colors are wrong. The large tank would have needed to be Dark Orange and the boosters a mix of White, Light Bluish Grey and some Black bits. At the same time I’m of course not naive and didn’t expect them to manufacture the 2 x 2 round brick in Dark Orange just for this set along with the matching cone. Yes, it’s once again one of those weird things where a 50 year old element (!) has never been done in this specific color. Doing so would naturally have been supremely awesome.

On the whole this is is an acceptable issue, but my impression remains that they’re stretching out the content at every corner and it feels like the editorial stuff is literally just three people. Not even getting all issues on top of that is even more frustrating. C’mon, Ehapa, give it some love!

New Rooms with a View – LEGO Friends, Aliya’s Room (41740), Leo’s Room (41754) and Nova’s Room (41755)

Back in the day when I was transitioning from being a LEGO Technic guy to conventional brick-built stuff, the Friends “room” sets were among the first I reviewed (here, here and here). They were fun little sets at a decent price point (with discounts, of course). There hadn’t been something similar in a while, but with the overhaul of the series it seems LEGO thought it was a good way to bring this idea back and introduce new rooms for some of the characters as a way of building the character lore. I don’t particularly care much for that, but appreciate a good set on a budget, so I got them to have a look how things now turned out several years later.

Price and Contents

To begin with, those sets are bigger, more complex packages than the original ones. This is immediately made clear by them containing two characters as minidolls and the layouts recognizably always featuring a 8 x 16 plate as the base. This is not only necessary to accommodate everything, but simply allows more freedom in design. Currently there are four of those sets of which I only got myself three for the time being – Aliya’s Room (41740), Leo’s Room (41754) and Nova’s Room (41755). The fourth one, Liann’s Room (41739), struck me as the least attractive in terms of originality of design, so I wasn’t in a rush to buy it, but I may still get it if there’s a good discount.

Speaking of which – bigger sets inevitably come at a higher price and in this case it has basically doubled from the original 10 Euro MSRP to 20 Euro. On paper that doesn’t sound too bad for sets with 179, 202, 203 and 209 pieces, respectively, but of course you have to consider a) the overall economics of the price-per-part ratio and b) that these are just vignettes, not actual buildings, vehicles or whatever. With that in mind you should definitely  be on the lookout for discounts. I got two of my packages for 13 Euro and another one for 15 Euro, but I’d wager that eventually the average price will settle around 12 Euro. possibly you could even get the sets for under 10 Euro during some special promotion, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Aliya’s Room (41740)

First in line is Aliya’s Room (41740), which she shares with Paisley. the way it’s presented both girls are into plant-based natural sciences such as botany, ecology or for that matter protecting the environment on a general level. This is of course driven home by the decorative greenery, but also by the windows in a natural “wood” color (Medium Nougat).

The minifigures are extremely fashionable and very influenced by popular culture and fashion, which is one of the better aspects of the reboot of Friends. For the subject at hand it feels a bit out of place, though, as environmentally conscious girls no doubt would give some consideration to sustainable clothing that isn’t so much tied to trends. Maybe I’m thinking too much in stereotypes here and perhaps I’m too accustomed to seeing Mia in drab khakis, but somehow it doesn’t feel “realistic” – whatever that could imply.

Apparently the girls like to have their film night once in a while and thus we get a small separate projector assembly. It has a small twist in that they are watching stuff from their phone, which is slotted in as a printed Orange tile on top. Naturally, without having applied the sticker this little extra looks a bit bland, but somehow LEGO seem completely unwilling to give us a t least a bunch of standard elements with contemporary prints. It’s really kind of weird that they hang on to printed tiles they introduced over a decade ago, but can’t be bothered to bring out some flashy new stuff to go with the times.

The white inserts in the door frame and panel should also have stickers, but thankfully even without those the room actually looks quite okay. That’s one of the things that really won me over with these little sets – they show a level of detail that would look good in actual Heartlake buildings and in a way those little vignettes almost surpass what is on offer there. Point in case: Those sets are very dense and very lively.

The set feels very cosy and is put together well enough. Indeed this could be a slightly crammed kid’s room and things get even more crowded when your best friend is coming for a sleepover. Interestingly, there’s a few unique and rare parts, but they are mot necessarily obvious on first glance. Well, the Sand Blue 8 x 16 plate is and so are the Yellow 2 x 4 modified plates, but others are better hidden. That applies for instance to the matching Yellow slider bricks that haven’t been around in more than twenty years. Two other notable pieces have camouflaged themselves in the Dark Blue trim line at the top, one being a 1 x 5 plate and the other a round corner plate in that color.

Leo’s Room (41754)

LEGO have been beating to death the fact that they want the new Friends sets to be more inclusive and representative and that also means they want to get away from making them too gender-specific/ gender-biased. Now I’m a weird old guy who has always liked this stuff for its crazy colors and have never let the series’ focus on teenage girls get in the way, but just as well I have been critical of it more than enough. Any effort to mitigate this onesidedness is therefore welcomed, but before you rejoice: No, we’re not there yet. Even the new Friends in 2023 is still 80 percent girl stuff.

Regardless, seeing a set that actually features two boys (and only boys) is a good start and of course as a gay guy I derive some twisted pleasure on whether they are just brothers or best buddies or whether there could be something more going on between Leo and Olly. 😉 Outside that of course the best part of the whole set even without deeper inspection is the fat grumpy cat. How effin’ brilliant is this? It’s one of the best ideas for a companion animal LEGO had in years!

The little obese kitty gets its own toy station, but not really much else. It could have benefited from having a tray or cat castle as an extra. On the bright side we do get a little goal for the two boys to play soccer/ footy, including an Orange ball. this could have come in a different color like Dark Azure with white decorations perhaps to make it more distinct. The model already has an awful lot of Orange and Coral parts.

The room itself is again quite stuffed to the brim with a small computer area beside the bunk beds, some surfing/ diving equipment and surprisingly enough a small kitchen area, including a camera setup to record videos for social media. That cooking/ baking/ cake decorating part feels a bit odd, to say the least. It’s not that boys/ men don’t spend time in the kitchen (I love baking myself), but I doubt many would have a setup to that effect in their sleeping rooms…

A standout feature of this set is the extra balcony, which adds some visual interest. This in particular makes you wish that the sets could be stacked together as if they were part of a modular building.

Nova’s Room (41755)

The third set is a bit of an outlier with its very dark and “cold” color scheme. Mind you, it’s not unrealistic, just a bit unusual. It’s more reminiscent of one of those dedicated gaming rooms with dark walls and neon lighting you see on respective streaming platforms and YouTube. As a regular sleeping room it’s perhaps a bit depressing or crazy-making. That notwithstanding, the color scheme in itself is tasteful enough and consistent.

The most interesting feature of the minidolls for Zac and Nova  are the gamer-themed prints on the shirts. That is going to draw some attention, though due to the two using skin colors other than the standard Light Nougat it would not be easy to use the elements on other figures.

Playing video games all day is of course not always a fulfilling activity and for health reasons you have to have some other interests as well, so we get a little workbench that hints at the two possibly being involved in skating or other activities. It’s never really spelled out what it is, but at least those tools would come in handy to fix the cart of the paraplegic dog.

 

The gaming station is a beefy computer rig, which would become even more clear with the stickers. Those include those colorful RGB fans and some other details. Again the non-existence of some decent prints is biting everyone in their behind and in this particular scenario a printed 2 x 6 tile to represent an ultra wide monitor could have been pretty awesome. And even a mundane 2 x 4 tile representing a Windows desktop would have been better than stickers. It’s all about options, you know.

The seating is modeled after those gaming chairs, but in the end feels more like a captain’s chair ripped of a Star Trek ship bridge. It’s just a bit too bulky due to the limitations of building it with existing pieces. A side effect also is that it actually cannot be turned around without scratching the “table”. if you look closely you also see that this causes some sort of “hole” in the scene, i.e. an area where no real detail is placed. Adding some flowers on the right hand side of the table could have avoided that.

Part of the problem is also the retractable shelf and the hidden crevice behind it.this contributes to the empty feeling and while applying the stickers would improve things, it would have been preferable if there were a few built details, be it just a few colored 1 x 1 plates and tiles.

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Concluding Thoughts

I really liked those sets. They nicely illustrate what’s possible in the Friends series if only you commit yourself and leave the designers some breathing room. Pretty much any of these separate rooms would look good in an actual building. At the same time that is of course the big frustration – actual building models never are this rich and you can see how corners are cut or the details are stretched out and distributed across multiple levels and rooms to fit the budget. It’s really a shame since if things were different, Friends could easily compete even with actual Modular Buildings (the specific design philosophy that sets the series apart notwithstanding). If you want to see what’s possible with LEGO pieces and a bit of love I would definitely recommend getting those packages just for that warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Yellow Digger – LEGO Minecraft Magazine, March 2023

I may not be into Minecraft or for that matter the LEGO version of it, but the LEGO Minecraft magazine certainly keeps on giving and still holds my interest. That is of course a bit of an inevitable paradox, as no doubt I may marvel at things that are everyday breakfast for someone engrossed in that world. Anyway, for now I’m discovering enough new things that I like, so let’s have a look at the latest issue for March 2023.

One of the main issues with the series is of course the limited color palette because everything is based on blocks in a few standardized colors. This adds a level of complication for making the comics look interesting, but as far as that goes the one in this issue ain’t that bad. The illustrators seem to understand the process better now after two years doing this stuff and they also get a bit more daring with applying extra shading and light effects.

One thing that still annoys me is the scattershot nature of how the pages are laid out and every other page interrupts the comic with puzzles or some unrelated info. Are kids’ attention spans these days really so bad they can’t be asked to read the comic as an entire block? In any case, it makes the mag quite noisy and look cheap.

Last month’s poster was quite okay, but this month we’re back down in the dumps. Re-using the November cover image? Mirroring it? You must be kidding! Calling this bad Photoshop editing would be doing favors. It’s really a lot worse than that and downright awful. The backside doesn’t do much better with the umpteenth use of the same Creeper image…

The bright spot is once more the extra(s), which is quite plentiful. Not only do you get two minifigures, the yellow explorer and another Creeper, but also a sizable piece of landscape. Not by any means anything too special, but usable. The Trans Neon Green “slime blob” is particularly nice and I almost wish it didn’t even have the eyes printed on, so it could be used more universally (without resorting to trickery like turning the cube in order to hide the decorations).

All in all this is an okay issue when you figure in all the little pieces, but I’m somehow baffled by Blue Ocean making strides and improving in one area (the comic) and then being cheap and falling back on those terrible hacks (the posters). A more coherent and consistent approach really would improve matters quite a bit.

Another White Rabbit – LEGO Creator, LEGO Creator, White Rabbit (31133)

The LEGO Creator 3in1 product line has been pretty good those last two years, so I couldn’t wait for what they might have in store this year. While it would be extremely difficult to top the Majestic Tiger (31129), I was hoping that some similarly good stuff was coming. LEGO‘s stupid staggered product roll-outs just so they can write some fancy PR statements every month (while the stock is already sitting in the retailers’ store back areas) meant I head to wait for February and March for the packages to actually become available, but now finalyl here we go, starting with the White Rabbit (31133).

Contents and Pricing

Officially the set comes with 258 pieces and is being sold for 20 Euro here in Germany. Arguably this is already a pretty good price to part ratio, but as you know me, I’m always looking for ways to save some money and hunt for discounts. This is easily possible since the set is widely available and apparently the vendors have enough breathing room to really go low. At the time of writing this, you can get the package for as little as 13 Euro and I got mine when it was around 15 Euro. This is more than fair, especially since you get quite a few large elements and once built the volume of stuff feels adequate.

All in One, One for All

Before delving into the individual models allow me to explain my approach to this particular set. In the past I have bought some of those cheaper Creator 3in1 sets a couple of times to a) not only make these articles more efficient but also because b) I genuinely liked them and I wanted to keep the models around for a while and c) they had parts that seemed be useful for later. In this case I couldn’t motivate myself to go down this route.

First there’s the issue of this package really not containing too many special parts. I’m certainly not the craziest LEGO buyer on this planet simply due to my financial restrictions, limited storage space and generally just not jumping at every theme, but even I now have reached a certain saturation in my parts collection where I just don’t need another hundred 1 x 4 plates in Tan or similar, not to speak of elements like the huge dome pieces that one just doesn’t need on too many builds. There are a few desirable pieces in there like the “pancake” slopes or the newer 4 x 1 slopes (not to be confused with their older, longer existing 3 x 1 counterparts), but if I ever needed more of them, I’d rather buy them selectively on Bricklink rather than clogging up my storage.

The second, and for me at least, bigger issue is plain and simply the color. The models would have looked way better in Light Bluish Grey without using any of their cute appeal and coincidentally doing so would have shifted the value of some elements into the “somewhat rare and desirable” category. As you can see from my crooked photos it might also have helped my with shooting them with better contrast, but then again I probably should have been smarter to begin with and dragged out a differently colored background.

All that being the case, I only got myself a single box and then ended up building one model, doing the images, disassembling and building the secondary and tertiary ones.

The Rabbit

The main attraction is of course the rabbit itself in its full glory and with Easter not being too far away it may be of particular interest either as a decorative item or a set to be gifted to your kids or someone else.

The build for this model is pretty straightforward and begins with the main body. It’s basically a conventional stack of plates and 2 x bricks, some of which are SNOT elements and to that base block rounded slopes and arches are attached to define the contour. The apparent downside to that, and it’s clearly recognizable in the images, is that it all looks very cookie cutter like and two dimensional. this has been criticized by other reviewers as well and you can see why. It seems that it should not have been too much trouble to add some more volume to the butt section and the legs. Those are built as separate units and then connected via the joints later.

This also goes for the head and ears. It’s all very modular in both the good and bad sense of the word. Building some parts integrally as a solid body would have allowed for some better curvature in some areas and I think it would not have harmed the overall experience. Most people will likely simply would use the cowered pose anyway and outside that the ability to articulate the creature differently is limited despite the joints. That’s mostly owing to the laws of physics as some components will always fall back into a stable position based on their weight and how they make contact with the floor for instance.

Using the clam shell pieces for the furry paws is an interesting solution, but I wish they had included some inverted curved slopes to shim over those open squares from the underside and in particular the front legs’ shins could also have benefited from at least a mundane 1 x 2 curved slope covering the studs. The tongue, BTW, is one of the few new elements and is the 1 x 1 rounded “hinge” plate in Dark Pink for the first time. From this angle and a few others the rabbit looks quite cute, though more in the “fictitious bunny” fairy tale sense. I’m sure there’s a specific breed that would come close to this, but generally the cheeks are perhaps a bit too hamster or Guinea Pig like.

Also included are a carrot of course and a flower, the latter mostly being a sneaky way to accommodate the yellow arches for the cockatoo.

The Cockatoo

The second model is a much simpler one and is a white cockatoo. The main trunk is constructed on the same principle as the rabbit, meaning it’s just a layered block of standard pieces to which everything else is eventually plugged on. This is done with the small turntables, which makes the whole assembly a bit wobbly. the wings do have stoppers, so they essentially fall into place just by virtue of gravity, but the head swivels around a bit too easily for my taste.

Another real shortcoming are the legs. The bird is basically dependent on using its tail as a support or else it will just topple over because the feet are not stable enough to balance out everything. It would be hard to put him in a stance as if he was traipsing around with his tail up, no matter how much you might want to.

Inevitably there are leftover pieces and in this case this is not so much their sheer number, but that it affects a good chunk of the parts that contribute to the volume of models. It’s not too bad, but illustrates that perhaps designing the rabbit around more smaller pieces might have been beneficial and allowed to use more elements on the alternate builds as well.

The Seal

The second alternative model is a baby seal. While it’s sort of cute, the proportions are also kinda wonky and wrong. The little tyke is presented in “lazy mode” with its body all flattened out as to represent the blubber following the pull of gravity, but that’s not very correct, either. Those seals are really pretty round and only adult seals have that wobbly feel, in particular males.

The build is similar to that of the cockatoo in terms of complexity, just the approach a bit different. This is more of a horizontal build compared to the vertical ones previously. The way some parts are attached is dubious, to say the least, with the big quarter dome pieces for the shoulders only hanging by two studs for instance.

As a side gag the model also comes with some fish bones/ a fish, but that would not be adequate for an infant that’s still suckling on its mommy, either. Parts usage is similar to the bird overall, just with a few elements being swapped for others.

 

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Concluding Thoughts

At the end of the day this is certainly an acceptable Creator 3in1 offering, though as expected it will not get anywhere near the tiger from last year. The individual value will depend a lot of what your favorite animal is. Some will favor the cockatoo, others the seal. For me personally I’d stick with the rabbit. Not necessarily because it’s my favorite animal, but because it’s the most appealing model in strict LEGO terms.

That’s unfortunately also the crux with the package as a whole. Everything is a little too simplistic and not streamlined enough to really provide a satisfying experience. Even when you’re done with the rabbit you feel like you’ve missed something during the assembly process because of that flat cut-out shape thing. I also would reinforce my point about the color. Dang would this have looked cool in grey! This would also have exploded the value for custom builds if and when they had recolored some elements/ included rare elements like the large arches in Light Bluish Grey. People would have bought it as a parts pack for that alone!

With all that said, as an adult this feels more like a 5 or 6 out of 10 than an 8 or 9. There’s just too much room for improvement in the details. on the other hand kids will love it and the more than acceptable price puts everything into perspective, so there’s no reason to skip over it. Indeed it could be the perfect gift for Easter.

Chasing the White Rabbit – LEGO Friends Magazine, March 2023

The LEGO Friends magazine is not necessarily the most exciting magazine, but somehow through all those years has managed to be just good enough for me to never have ditched it. The topics are of course predictable and repetitive and so it’s not much of a surprise that the March 2023 issue is basically the “Easter Edition” with rabbits and all that since the April issue will only come out after the festive days. Let’s have a look at what’s inside.

Despite my “hangin’ in there” I’ll never get behind the comics. They’re just awful and adding new characters hasn’t done much to improve the situation. The style and panel layout are just boring and the stories laughable.

In keeping with the special subject we inevitably get some extra content by ways of an editorial/ info page on rabbits and there are other bits sprinkled across the pages such as a nice, but very small coloring image. They’re also still in the process of introducing the new characters, so there’s a bunch of activities related to that as well.

On that same note, the back side of the poster features several of these new Heartlake City inhabitants for you (or your kid) to better learn their names. the front side simply features a photo of a rabbit doing its thing in the grass.

The extra is one of them washing stations/ diagnostic table things we’ve seen a hundred times with minor variations in the color theme and build style. Really nothing to write home about, even more so since they didn’t include a new version of the rabbit, either.

All things considered, this is one of those issues that “just exist” and while it has a few good parts, the rest is as forgettable as it is most of the time. I would not urge anyone to buy it, but if you enjoy this type of stuff it’s definitely okay.

Headed the wrong Way – LEGO Disney, Moana’s Wayfinding Boat (43210)

It’s now a little over one year after the unceremonious demise of the LEGO Disney Princess magazine and just like Blue Ocean have run the publication into the ground, the whole series has taken an odd trajectory. It feels like it’s stuck in a loop and resigned to repeating the same themes over and over and several of the recent Disney animated movies having bombed hasn’t helped matters. So far it also doesn’t look like the company’s 100th anniversary will give us something spectacular, either, at least in the LEGO world. As a result, sets that actually interest me are rare and far in-between such as Moana’s Wayfinding Boat (43210) in this article.

Contents and Pricing

By now it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that those Disney sets are quite expensive and mostly overpriced. This one is no exception with only 321 pieces and a suggest retail price of 35 Euro. At first glance it doesn’t even sound that bad, but you have to keep in mind that there’s only two figures, a single animal, no extra side builds and of course the usual “It’s tons of 1 x 1s…” skewing the metrics unfavorably. At the same time things could be worse and they could ask 50 Euro for this, but that is little consolation. They’re really going in hard on this. Starting out so high inevitably limits the potential for discounts on the part of the resellers, and so more or less you have to be glad if you’re getting that typical 30 %, if at all. I bought my package for 25 Euro, but I’ve never seen it drop below 22 Euro even at some notoriously aggressive outlets.

The Figures

The figures are not much to write home about except for the fact that they represent new designs and of course we’re getting not only Moana/ Vaiana herself, but also one of the other villagers called Sina. The more obvious thing is the glaring absence of any animals bar the baby dolphin depicted in the overview image. No Heihei or Pua in sight, much less any other creatures. Even the dolphin is super, super lame in that it doesn’t at least come in a new color or has a big parent dolphin, possibly also in a new color, coming along as well. And then of course there’s potential here to sneak in a seagull or other bird perched on the mast… There’s no way around it: In the figures and creature department this is a complete fail.

The Model

The model is of course based on the catamarans that you can see in a few scenes of the movie like the vision about her ancestors. as you would expect from a play set aimed at children a lot of things have been simplified and to a degree also solidified/ bulked up with stronger elements to make them more robust such as the outrigger inevitably not being just a bunch of bundled up sticks but rather some massive bricks.

The model is not completely symmetrical, but except for some minor details related to the length of the two flotation bodies the build is hugely similar all the way. that accelerates the already very simple assembly process even further and in a manner of speaking you can do it nearly blindly. It’s very straightforward, which is good for kids not getting too frustrated. The only potential show stoppers are the two axles that need to be inserted vertically as safety pins to connect the floats to the deck bridge. They require quite a bit of force.

There aren’t that many noteworthy details and even if I had used the stickers, which of course I never do, this wouldn’t have changed much. On the positive side the LEGO designers at least had the good sense to make an effort to build some decorations with various tiles, including a bunch of skin-toned quarter tiles in Light Nougat.

The cabin/ bed area is equally sparse, though I wouldn’t have expected much else since in reality those boats really were kept simple and more a means of island hopping than travelling large distances in open waters. The “wood” look is achieved with the two Tan colors and various shades of Nougat with Orange, Coral and Red providing the colored accents. The model also likely benefited from LEGO having some elements in plain Nougat (no Light or Medium) left over from their production run for the UCS Luke Skywalkers Landspeeder (75341) from the Star Wars line. They complemented them further by actually producing the new flat arch element in this color and for the time being it’s even exclusive to this set.

The same applies to the 1 x 8 tiles in Light Nougat. A few other elements are on the more elusive side like the Lime 1 x 4 plate modified with two studs or the various coral parts, but most of those are in several Friends sets as well, so it’s only a question of time until they proliferate and will be available more widespread. 

A big stinker is the really ugly construction of the mast for the sail with the colors being all over the place. Yes, LEGO has color coding for the various axle lengths, but it’s not that the Yellow and Light Bluish Grey ones with the odd-numbered lengths aren’t available in both colors and conversely the Red and Black ones for the even-numbered lengths couldn’t be unified. That also goes for the various connectors. They all could just be a single color. You could even take this to the extreme and argue that this whole structure could be a single color. Would you really notice the differences between a 6L Black axle and a 5L Yellow axle if the proportions of the sail were adjusted accordingly to disguise and compensate the odd proportions? You can’t even explain this away with kid-friendliness…

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Concluding Thoughts

If you can get it for a good price this is an acceptable set for your Moana-loving kid, but you must be aware that it is pretty barebones. Unless you have the other sets to go with it to enhance the play fantasy you may be in for a lot of complaints. The non-inclusion of some decent animals and an extra piece of land or mooring/ landing bridge are baffling omissions and diminish the value of the set unnecessarily. For adults it doesn’t really have much on offer if you don’t count scraping together the few special/ unique parts, so you can skip over it without missing out on something.

Orange Trooper – LEGO Star Wars Magazine, March 2023

February is of course a short month, so here we are already again with the latest LEGO Star Wars magazine for March 2023.

The first comic has The Mandalorian and Grogu in it, which is a bit unusual, given that last month we got a similar comic already, though it was the shorter one.

In the second comic we see General Grievous facing off against some Storm Troopers, which of course is a not so subtle hint at the included extra (no, it’s not Grievous)

For the poster I picked the back side featuring Yoda‘s unforgettable “Do it or don’t! There is no try!” quote. If the text was slightly smaller it would be even better. The front side has a standard Death Star trench chase scene. That’s okay, just nothing special.

The extra has some people’s underwear in a knot and to some degree makes them go bonkers. The facts are simple: The  212th Clone Trooper so far has only appeared in the AT-TE Walker (75337) and there are only three in this set. This apparently makes this coveted minifigure quite costly on Bricklink and other secondary markets. That seems to be reason enough for people to buy stacks and stacks of this magazine to deck out their battle dioramas. It’s basically still cheaper to pay 5 Euro for the mag instead of 7 Euro (in an optimistic case; most times it’s around 10 Euro), but it’s still a lot of money to throw around you could just as well on some real sets. It always amazes me how people fall into this “battle pack (substitute) craze”!

That said, the figure itself is just fine and has some detailed prints. With its Orange demarcations it will look distinct to the 501th Storm Troopers with their Blue insignia or the upcoming Dark Purple ones (forgot which unit they are) as well as the many standard white and grey ones. Personally I will be happy that the next issue comes with a buildable extra again, though. I get why people want minifigures, but at the end of the day you clearly cannot cover enough ground to make everybody happy, anyway, for a multitude of reasons. Having something brick-built will make a nice change after four minifigs in a row.

For me this is one of the more enjoyable issues because it doesn’t veer too much in the “silly nonsense” direction with the comics and there’s at least one serviceable poster. If you’re part of the Storm Trooper/ Clone Trooper crowd you cannot avoid buying this, anyway, multiple times if necessary.

Beaming Chamber – LEGO Jurassic World Magazine, February 2023

It’s a good thing that the LEGO Jurassic World magazine is now on one and a half month cycle, so there’s at least some stability there, given how much the publishing schedule of the other magazines has been thinned out or stretched to a point where every issue that still gets released feels like a surprise because you simply lose sight of the release dates in those long weeks.

The first thing of note in the February/ March 2023 issue is the new style of coloring. It’s not big news that each of the inking artists has their own style and that’s fair and square and logical with how the magazine is produced, but I feel this particular look is one step too far. It makes things look a bit too dark and the silky sheen with the inner glows/ inner drop shadows bleeding into certain areas feels weird. It’s plausible in that both comics play out at night and you’d have this odd “moonlight effect” to some degree, but if feels a bit too extreme here. It’s all too soft and there are e.g. barely any hard shadows in the panels. They need to take it back a notch next time.

The posters both aren’t very good, only recycling and repeating the ever same ideas and motives. It’s not even executed well from a technical standpoint with the orange wall looking murky and lacking any crunch. The bricks breaking out are a completely different color and don’t cast shadows, either. Some very unsophisticated Photoshop hack job!

Saving the day once again is the extra. It’s not very complex, but makes up for it with volume. It isn’t every day that you get two half-cylinders in a magazine “polybag” (they’re obviously paper now) and some 1 x 1 x 5 bricks. It’s supposed to be some sort of hatching/ growth chamber, but could just as well be a transporter from Star Trek or some sort of deep freeze hibernation thing. A slightly larger base plate and perhaps a few extra pieces could have elevated this to a level where it would almost compete with commercial sets.

On the whole this is a somewhat hum-ho issue and only the extra is adding some real value. Unfortunately we’re still in this slump with Jurassic World with no new sets on the horizon independent from the movies and so it’s all a bit too much rinse-repeat with the ever same content.

Dining out – LEGO Friends, Heartlake Downtown Diner (41728)

Friends has been a staple of my LEGO career and so it always has been a big part of this blog as well. With the series celebrating its 10th anniversary I only have covered part of its journey, but that’s still quite a bit. One thing I learned pretty quickly was that there are always a few standard subjects across release cycles. Not necessarily with every one of them, but somehow there’s always some sort of restaurant, a hair dresser or beauty salon, a fashion store and so on. Sometimes it even leads to this situation where multiple variations on the theme are on the market because the models get refreshed in alternating patterns and the old versions are still on the market while the new one comes out. This is kind of the situation now. While sales of the Heartlake City Organic Café (41444) are tapering off after two years, the new Heartlake Downtown Diner (41728) comes in. Let’s have a look at it.

Price and Contents

The set officially costs 30 Euro for 346 pieces, which is pretty much line with the previous offering. If you wanted to be very particular about it you could even a whole song and dance about those 25 pieces more than the other model, but let’s not forget that most of them will be small 1 x 1 elements and similar. In standard fashion of course there’s the matter of discounts to make things worthwhile and you can count on some good ones for this package. I bought mine for 21 Euro, but just the other day I saw it being sold for 17 Euro. That’s about 44 % off! So you see, there’s not much excuse to not at least consider getting it. 

Figures

This being the anniversary of the series, LEGO decided to give it an overhaul and aside from the package design looking a bit more modern this especially means the introduction of a large roster of new characters. This is being sold with all flowery marketing language to mean better diversity, representation, inclusion of different ethnicities, special needs people and all walks of life, but at the end of the day the simple truth likely is that the complaints about lack of variation were becoming too loud and the formula a bit stale with Mia, Emma, Andrea, Olivia etc. being in every set. I definitely felt that. Whether an onslaught of new characters whose names you might not even rember is the solution to the problem remains to be seen, though. In this package you get Charli, who stands out with his Light Aqua hair and is the chef, Aliya, the dark-skinned waitress and Liann, the skater girl, as her customer. that’s sufficient to play out a few scenarios and also in relation to the size of the set, but of course this would benefit if you dug out some other figures to make everything a bit more busy.

The Diner

The building itself comes in pieces, which mostly means it comes with a separate guest seating area. Apparently the models is neither wide nor deep enough to fit it internally. That is unless you were to re-design the interior. It’s okay, but apparently it would have been nice if this segment was somehow connected to the main building. The obvious answer would have been some sort of L shape like the old Emma’s Art Café (41336) or similar. Given how the whole thing is build it shouldn’t have been difficult to add that 90 degree corner and extend the window front and roof.

The design is of course based on those old American diners from the 1950s and 1960s which were often converted from trailers or small kiosks built in the same style. Lots of rounded shapes and curved elements. The model captures this spirit nicely, without being too specific. the big sticking point for most people will of course be the color scheme. It really hinges a lot on how much you like Dark Turquoise and Coral. The good thing about it is that the sideways arches and the curved slopes are new in their respective colors, expanding the options for your own builds. That also goes for the Bright Light Yellow 6 x 6 door frame, which is at this point exclusive to this set. Most other elements are either already existing color variants or can be found in other sets. Some of them are more desirable than others, apparently, but overall the selection of parts isn’t that bad. There definitely have been less useful Friends sets when it comes to the yield of reusable parts.

Given the small size of the building, the interior is sparse as you would expect. It basically only contains the kitchen and two coin machines – a jukebox and an arcade gaming station. The latter has been a matter of debate in some other reviews in terms of kid-friendliness and all that. personally I find these discussions a bit far fetched, given that most kids will play games on their smartphones or have a console at home, anyway. You have to go with the times!

As so often the case with these types of models in the Friends series the most annoying part is the assembly. The two floor plates are only connected with the tiles for a long time and likewise, the whole window front remains very wobbly until the moment it is actually fixated with the plates for the roof. Once those and the transversal bar are in place, though, the model is quite robust. Another issue, though a minor one, are the curved slopes for the various ramps. LEGO have been using this in a few sets since last year and while it is serviceable to create the illusion of accessibility e.g. for wheelchairs, they do come off pretty easily.

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Concluding Thoughts

The set doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but is a solid design and could be a good basis for integrating a small diner/ kiosk into an existing city. You would of course need to extend it somehow by making it deeper or wider, be it just to accommodate the seating in a believable way. The price point is reasonable enough and to me it’s also more credible than the Heartlake City Organic Café (41444). I’d definitely give it a whirl if the colors don’t turn you off right away.

Under the Sea – LEGO Avatar, Ilu Discovery (75575) and Skimwing Adventure (75576)

I was really looking forward to Avatar – The Way of Water, but admittedly I haven’t managed to actually see it in cinemas. Things have been a bit too chaotic in the last few weeks for a multitude of reasons ranging from health issues to family stuff and it really killed my mood. So all my knowledge is still merely based on the trailers and the film snippets you can find on various sites. I feel that is enough to judge the subjects of this article, the Ilu Discovery (75575) and Skimwing Adventure (75576) sets, but of course I won’t make any claims to the accuracy of my observations and interpretations.

Pricing and Contents

As products based on licensed IP the sets inevitably are more expensive and thus the real question only becomes by how much and whether that is justified. To make a long story short the answer is “No!” for both sets, only to a varying degree. The Ilu Discovery (75575) comes in at a measly 179 pieces at 25 Euro suggested retail price which is a crooked price to begin with. This is only mitigated by retailers offering a discount, which brings it down to around 17 Euro, which is what I got my package for, but when you think about it, it is still 10 Cent a piece, making this anything but a steal. The Skimwing Adventure (75576) fares even worse. 259 pieces for 35 Euro is really nothing to write home about and the typical thirty percent discounts don’t change that. 25 Euro is still quite a bit for so little content in return, no matter how you spin it.

Ilu discovery (75575)

This set is literally the smallest set in the Avatar range, not just for this second wave but also overall. that applies to the piece count as well as the size of the model. The creature is in a very true sense some sort of “sea pony” used by the kids of the Metkayina tribe to move around faster underwater.

Those children are represented by minifigures depicting Tsireya and Tuk, her Na’vi friend. Them being kids also means that they come with the medium length movable legs introduced for the Harry Potter series three years ago and the non-movable even shorter “toddler” ones as opposed to the extra long versions used on the adults. The prints are again of excellent quality, though at this point the loin cloths and various trinkets made from natural materials feel a bit repetitive. But what can you do? They’re all running around pretty naked on Pandora…

Similar to the previous sets these ones come with smaller landscape side builds, in this case meaning all sorts of reef and sea floor stuff. The only distinct feature is that its extremely colorful, but at the end of the day it looks more like LEGO were just recycling random leftovers than having a genuine plan. There isn’t much in the way of actual structure and the rationale seems to be that as long as it looks flamboyant enough people won’t make too much of the absence of some real details. Unlike with the mountain pieces in the first wave there is also no provision to connect these little bits from different sets, further diminishing the usefulness. The point here really is that there should be some sort of large reef in one of those packages and then all the action happening around it.

The Ilu creature itself looks a bit like a cross between a dragon and a dinosaur and clearly took some inspiration from a Plesiosaurus. The model is rather small and the build is very minimalistic with the body being only slightly wider than two studs. The problem with that is of course that it also looks very blocky and rigid, in particular in the neck area. Ultimately it boils down to the fact that this model would have benefited from being at a larger scale, but of course I do get that they wanted to match the size of the minifigures. After all, it’s a film tie-in meant to re-play the scenes from the movie.

The beast itself is just fine, but doesn’t really offer much of a challenge in building nor any special revelations. For me the most interesting thing are the wedge pieces for the fins now also being available in Sand Blue and of course there’s a new custom mold for the head. Just too bad that the print quality is once more terrible and the yellow looks very faded. This is in stark contrast to the wings and some of the yellow elements. The wings are in their own way also problematic. While they look okay from the top, once you see the underside the massive Technic axles and connectors ruin everything. This issue will also come up for the second set.

Skimwing Adventure (75576)

The Skimwing is a larger creature used as sort of an attack/ infantry transport vessel similar to a horse by the adults in the movie. It’s name already hints at the fact that it more or less glides over the water instead of fully swimming in it. This is similar to those Foiling boards that have become the latest fashion in the last few years or if you want to go back further of course boats and ships, in particular ferries, that are built as hydrofoils for speed.

The minifigures represent Jake Sully and Tonowary, one of the Metkayina warriors. There’s not much more to say here that hasn’t been said in regards to the other figures. They’re executed well enough, but don’t offer much in the way of special features. It probably would not have been a bad idea to create at least some new weapons molds to make them more collectible.

The landscape pieces are even more barren than those on the Ilu. However, they offer at least some interesting pieces. the 1 x 1 cone in Yellowish Green is a never before seen color for this element and the Dark Purple horns are also nice. Aside from serving as the stand for the big fish itself, the small extra island can be used to create the illusion of one of the characters floating. That is also featured in the Ilu set, by the way.

The Skimwing is an intriguing design featuring aspects of a Northern Pike/ Eel, Sturgeon, Crocodile and a Marlin mixed with a Flying Fish. That would offer lots of potential, but similar to the Ilu it falls a bit flat due to the limitations of LEGO in general and adhering to minifigure scale. The only consolation is that in the movie the creature appears to be in “stiff mode” most of the time, so its somewhat rigid appearance and limited articulation is not that far off. I just wish there wouldn’t be those ugly large gaps between the segments.

The wings are a bit of a disappointment, not only because of the once again very visible Technic underpinnings, but also the way they are executed. You see, on the real creature they can fold up like zig-zag blinds and conform to the body plus they appear very opaque and more in a Dark Red tone. That makes me think that this would have been better emulated with those starched cloth pieces you sometimes find for skirts in Friends sets or as sails and capes in Ninjago and Star Wars. In fact this could have been stable enough to completely eliminate the supporting structure and make this look more elegant.

The second major disappointment are the prints on the head. By now we’ve all gotten used to opacity of bright colors on dark backgrounds not being great, but the way it’s here is simply unacceptable. It’s not even close to looking reasonably like the Tan color on the jaw next to it. Moreover, the colored area has scratches, likely because it was not handled properly while the paint was still fresh. And finally to top it off, the replacement I ordered from LEGO shows the same issues. This is a big “No, no, no!” and they deserve to be called out for it.

The only other thing of note is the Sand Blue propeller blade used on the tail. After it had been available only in Dark Bluish Grey for a decade, it seems now one of the designers has discovered more creative uses for it and after the Red one in the Aston Martin themed Speed Champions set (76910) and the White ones in some Friends sets we’re now getting this version.

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Concluding Thoughts

Both the models are okay for what they represent, but the massive flaws and shortcomings cannot be overlooked. The most annoying of them is how crude the structural parts on the wings look on those small creatures and the overall very rigid-looking design. What was tolerable for the Toruk and the Ikrans really becomes a problem at this much smaller size. The proportions are just completely out of wack and the thick axles and connectors make the supports look like heavy wale bones. One really wishes LEGO hat at least found it in their hearts to make them transparent or come up with another solution entirely, possibly based on some new elements.

On top of that there are of course the massive quality issues with some of the prints. It’s simply incomprehensible how the company claiming to be the market leader in these kinds of toys doesn’t get a handle on the problem when even some cheap knock-off brands do it better. There is in fact a sense of deep irony here as for once they managed to print the blue minifigures decently, but can’t manage to do the same on the animals despite the base color being somewhat similar. Go, figure!

Outside that the sets really only appeal to Avatar fans or people with a love for slightly more exotic stuff and crazy colors. There’s not much to gain here. The builds are straightforward and in their simplicity a bit boring while the overall appearance of the creatures and the surroundings feels lacking. The reef parts are the bare minimum and nothing really comes to life. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if those beasts would be circling a larger reef? Wouldn’t it make sense to have them appear in groups/ swarms like in the movie?

With all that in mind I cannot seriously recommend either of these packages. The Ilu Discovery (75575) could still be a little snack if you’re looking for something different every now and then since it’s affordable enough, but things already get fishy (no pun intended) for the Skimwing. It’s simply too expensive and for the money you can get better Creator 3in1 sets or something else.