Panda Jungle – LEGO Friends, Panda Jungle Tree House (41422)

This year isn’t necessarily a good year for LEGO fans in that due to the ongoing Corona virus crisis a lot of sets are in short supply and thus you either have a hard time to get them at all or at least getting them with an ounce of discount. At least I regularly feel quite stressed out from hunting for low prices, which in my situation is an inevitable thing. That’s why actually being able to purchase the LEGO Friends Panda Jungle Tree House (41422) was a bit of a pain in the rear parts.

LEGO Friends, Panda Jungle Tree House (41422), Box

Contents and Pricing

Next to the Baby Elephant Jungle Rescue (41421) this is the second cheapest set of this year’s jungle-themed series. At 30 Euro it isn’t that terribly costly, but of course it’s always good to save a buck or two and so I got it for 23 Euro. I’m willing to concede that buying it for full price isn’t beyond the realm of possibility without feeling bad, though. The reason for this naturally has to be that the contents of the package are adequate, meaning you need to feel like you got your money’s worth. this is definitely the case here.

Aside from the main attraction, the three Panda babies, you are getting two minidoll figures, some small side builds and the main build, which is some sort of office built on top of a tree stump with a sizable piece of “land” around it. Simply put, there’s enough volume/ bulk to the set to not feel like you got a bad deal.

LEGO Friends, Panda Jungle Tree House (41422), Overview

Figures and Animals

LEGO Friends, Panda Jungle Tree House (41422), Figures, Mia and OliviaThe Mia and Olivia minidolls are unique to this set. That is if you do not have the funds or do not want the two “big” sets, the Jungle Rescue Base (41424) and the Alpaca Mountain Jungle Rescue (41432), where one in each of them is also used, respectively. The prints and designs are okay, but even so this doesn’t change the fact that the minidolls still look all to same-y to me and overall this is getting a bit stale and boring. I think they really need to throw in more alternative characters and at the very least change the hairstyles every now and then.

LEGO Friends, Panda Jungle Tree House (41422), Pandas

The pandas are of course cute and on top of their dual-molded black and white bodies have some fine print details. You get two standard versions with green eyes that in my mind are girls and a third one with blue eyes and bushy eyebrows that has soiled himself while being fed, which I imagine could be a rambunctious boy. The specks and splotches are likely supposed to represent some sort of porridge or similar.

Unfortunately those Tan colorations aren’t as visible as one would conclude from the photo. They are much fainter in real life and depending on the lighting are barely noticeable or look like actual dirt stains. I feel that a different color would have made them stand out more and a different shaping like for instance a contiguous drip/ drool pattern would have looked better.

On that note, it would have been nice if there was at least a third eye color like Dark Orange to make each Panda distinctly its own. Ideally there also would have been a walking version, but I guess expecting them to produce another mold would be too much.

The small Stuff

The side builds are not that extraordinary or unusual, in the Friends world at least. You get yet another version of a hand-pulled cart, a seesaw and a small scale for weighing the Pandas. Really nothing you haven’t seen before with the only “highlight” being the inclusion of an extra separate bamboo stalk.

LEGO Friends, Panda Jungle Tree House (41422), Extras

The main Build

The main build/ building is the tree or more specifically the decapitated remnants thereof with the office built on top of it. A first glance also immediately shows what bothers me the most in this set: the Dark Pink slide and ladder. No, this has nothing to do with wrong expectations for realism – after all, I’ve bought enough Friends sets in my life already to know that weird colors are part of the game – but here it really feels out of place and forced for no good reason.

I suppose the actual point indeed is that these elements could have been in the traditional yellow and the model therefore had been all the better for it. Of course I’m not denying that in an ideal world at least the ladder would be Reddish Brown, Medium Nougat or Black like in so many other sets, but hey, one can’t have everything. Still, I maintain that the pink color is perhaps not ideal, no matter how you spin it.

LEGO Friends, Panda Jungle Tree House (41422), Front Left View

One good thing that contributes to this model feeling “rich” is that it’s pretty decked out with greenery and in addition has a lot of smaller details in the right places, providing an overall nice balance. It doesn’t feel too overstuffed and cluttered, but also not too barren. Even more importantly everything remains quite accessible despite those details, including the fact that those bits and pieces are reasonably fixated to not fall off if your hand gets near them. This is a feat not often achieved in a good chunk of Friends sets, so props to that.

LEGO Friends, Panda Jungle Tree House (41422), Back Left View LEGO Friends, Panda Jungle Tree House (41422), Detail, Office

The office area is built on a semi-open deck and in its reduced, yet slightly chaotic layout is likely pretty close to how it could exist in the real world as an improvised daytime surveillance shelter on a platform somewhere up in the trees. It doesn’t really offer much beyond that.

LEGO Friends, Panda Jungle Tree House (41422), Back Right View

The backside of the model allows access to the hollow tree underneath the office and even has a bed-like area, which is unfortunately a bit uninspired and only presented with flat tiles. That being the case, I’d almost prefer they had designed this area as a utility shed/ storage and thrown in some stuff to put in there. In fact having a wheelbarrow would have made perfect sense for cleaning up the Panda poop in addition to the shovel and broom and I’m sure you could have fitted in some other little gimmicks as well.

LEGO Friends, Panda Jungle Tree House (41422), Detail, BathtubAnother interesting little detail is the bathtub/ trough. They even went through the trouble of not only adding a bunch of pearlescent 1 x 1 tiles for the “water” and a smoke puff for the foam, but also threw in a Yellow 1 x 1 tile for the washing sponge.

LEGO Friends, Panda Jungle Tree House (41422), Detail, More BambooA small thing that kinda bugs me, and you can call me silly  and obsessive for it, are the bamboo stalks. Don’t misunderstand – they are fine as they are – but still could have been done better, at least in my opinion.

What I’m specifically aiming at are the actual growth segments inbetween the knots, represented here with Sand Green cones. in my thinking this would have made a perfect use case for the new candle elements introduced a while ago. Naturally, with bamboo just being oversized grass, the optics would have benefited immensely from a more slender appearance.

The actual point, however, to me is that this technique would have allowed for more stalks and also potentially building some very long ones as well. This wouldn’t have been as limiting as only allowing two cones height for stability reasons (The stalks are not reinforced with bars inside!). And of course going entirely crazy you could even have represented different growths/ ages by varying the colors from Lime Green to Dark Green and anything inbetween. I really think LEGO need to do this one day. The idea is just too cool to me!


Concluding Thoughts

After my long and trying journey to even get the set, I’m quite satisfied having bought it. Within the limits of the weirdness that is LEGO Friends this isn’t all that bad and if I were serious about integrating this into a greater jungle scenario/ play world, it would be a good basis and not too difficult to swap out the more colorful parts or just leave them out for a more realistic look. Of course it’s also true that with just a few more pieces and a few changes here and there this could have been positively awesome.

Overall I’m not complaining, though. The build process was reasonably enjoyable, I got a few useful parts and the theme as a whole is not bad, as much as I may have wished for a continuation of the oceanic rescue series from last year. Now I only need to figure out how to get my hands on the other sets from the series without ruining my finances…

Is it a Dream or a Nightmare? – Trolls World Tour Pop Village Celebration (41255)

I’ll admit that when I first heard about the Trolls World Tour sets I was quick to dismiss them as a cheap marketing ploy based on yet another average animated movie. I make no bones about it, because of course on some level always true. One of the primary reasons for most such movies even existing is to cash in with toys, printed T-shirts and other merchandise. However, despite considering myself mostly resilient to such cheap and obvious schemes, the inclusion of LEGO adds another level and after long pondering I gave in to my own curiosity and bought the Pop Village Celebration (41255) set when it was cheap.

LEGO Trolls World Tour, Pop Village Celebration (41255), Box

Aside from the trailer I have zero understanding of the movie. Apparently the planned release here in Germany fully coincided with the height of the first Corona virus wave and the ensuing lockdown, so it never got released theatrically. Unlike in the US it also never developed into a secret sleeper hit on streaming services, meaning there’s really little information on it everywhere. And I don’t have Netflix, also, so forgive me if I’m flying a bit blind on this.

The one advantage that the relative obscurity of the movie offers is that the sets themselves are realtively cheap to have because they otherwise would barely even sell. Don’t get me wrong – I think they were seriously overpriced to begin with and might not have sold this great even if the movie had seen its proper marketing push. This particular set isn’t even the worst offender with its suggested price of 50 Euro, but regardless, despite getting a relatively large model out of it, paying 35 Euro or less for what ultimately amounts to a very simplistic build feels much better.

LEGO Trolls World Tour, Pop Village Celebration (41255), Overview

The content of the box is what I would cautiously call adequate, but it’s not great value. true, there are a few larger parts, some printed parts, some very unique figures and the new exclusive bubble pods, but at the end of the day you get limited LEGO value out of it. A lot of these items created exclusively for this series feel more like they belong in the hands of other toy manufacturers. You know, like some of the things LEGO did in the early 2000s and late 1990 where you end up wondering “What? They really did that?”.

LEGO Trolls World Tour, Pop Village Celebration (41255), Minifigures

The figures in these sets are quite removed from the traditional minifigure designs with especially the Trolls type heads and associated hair pieces sticking out. It would be quite tricky to get them affixed to regular figures. However, I’m pretty sure that in particular some of the hair pieces will make a reappearance in other sets as regular parts for the simple reason that they fit on what equates a 2 x 2 round brick or plate.

The Medium Lavender and White pieces shown in the picture would be fantastic tree stumps or small volcanos when done in other colors and similarly Poppy’s hair (the Magenta one) could serve as a basis for all sorts of plants. Hopefully LEGO realize that potential. Aside from that, some of the figure parts could be interesting for people who are into creating custom figures. Some of the colors used here are extremely rare and hard to find elsewhere.

On that note: Bricklink prices for these figs are insane. It seems not too many people have bought the sets or they are in short supply for other reasons. Should you have a genuine interest in these figures as a collector or your kids bug you about them, seriously consider just buying the sets. It would be a lot cheaper and selling off the parts could rake in some additional cash.

LEGO Trolls World Tour, Pop Village Celebration (41255), Extras

There are two super, super simple extra builds in the set with one being a baking oven and the other a cart/ mobile DJ booth for Tiny Diamond, the baby-sized transparent little dude in from the figures. The latter, like the figures themselves, is decorated with elements from a dedicated set specifically developed for this series. This includes the musical notes, some baking utensils and hair add-ons and comes in different colors across different sets. I’m pretty sure, though, that now that it exists it will be used prominently elsewhere as well.

LEGO Trolls World Tour, Pop Village Celebration (41255), Front View with Bubble Pods

The main build is some sort of house, which could also be a hollowed out tree stem or plant. Not having seen the movie I honestly can’t say. It comes with two pear-shaped bubble pods that no doubt have some specific role in the film, but otherwise are probably just part of the normal living homes. The first image also exposes one major design flaw right away – the darker pod is drooping way too much and almost falling off its stalk.

LEGO Trolls World Tour, Pop Village Celebration (41255), Front Left View

The answer to this issue is easily apparent – everything is just attached with a single pin hole which inevitably will cause the dino tail element and the trunk piece to follow the simple laws of physics, meaning the sheer weight of the pod and gravity will exert forces that turn the whole affair in the pin hole and then everything begins to slump. If you are careful you can stop the pod just shy off the end of the trunk part, but it still falls off at the slightest touch.

Funny enough, the issue doesn’t appear on the right-hand side of the model, where a different type of tail piece has been used, which by it’s nature isn’t as prone to rotating on its own even under weight. in any case, I feel that both are still not ideal. They are simply delicate and not ideal for a kids toy. A more conventional construction using e.g. arch elements might have been more robust and less troublesome.

LEGO Trolls World Tour, Pop Village Celebration (41255), Front Right View

At first I was rather skeptical about the build using those large quarter cylinder pieces in Dark Cyan for the main construction. However, once finished, it’s surprisingly sturdy. Getting there on the other hand is a different story. I found the build extremely tedious and unsatisfying. In their raw state many sections of the model are pretty unstable until you cap them off with plates, arches and long bricks. This in itself is always a challenge as you have to connect the correct studs and exerting too much pressure has the risk of breaking things apart again. It’s definitely not my preferred way of building.

LEGO Trolls World Tour, Pop Village Celebration (41255), Back Left View

The other thing that makes the assembly process kinda boring is that there is essentially only two types of pieces: Very large ones and then in the opposite, very small ones like the 1 x 1 elements used to decorate the stage or fasten the leaves and ropes/ vines. You never find a good flow. Had I applied the stickers, the interruptions would have bothered me even more.

Thankfully there are at least a few printed elements and those look interesting in their own right with their funny faces and big mouths. I’m just wondering why LEGO didn’t go the full mile and printed everything. This set is aimed at relatively young children and while it’s not labeled as a 4+ model, it sure feels this way. As you know, in that series everything is printed from smallest details to big building walls, so why not do it here? Especially the big “weather wheel” should have been easy enough as a perfectly smooth flat piece. Who knows, had they printed it, they could even have used a more elaborate design?

LEGO Trolls World Tour, Pop Village Celebration (41255), Back Right View

I’m also puzzled by the odd felt elements. This to me feels neither here nor there. Why introduce a new material when you’re only using it so sparingly? Even just by watching the trailer you realize that those fuzzy and furry materials are used massively in the movie. Point in case: Probably every plant and flower should be made from a textile material or in reverse, not a single one of them and it’s all plastic. To put it bluntly: It feels half-assed.

This is even more the case since it’s cheap industrial synthetic material. There may be safety, hygiene and manufacturing considerations at play here, but using natural wool would at least have had a warmer touch and communicated a different message. And it’s not that this would have made the set unaffordably expensive…

LEGO Trolls World Tour, Pop Village Celebration (41255), Bubble Pods

The bubble pods are actually very limited. They look nice, but there’s just not enough to do with them. Originally I thought they were meant as some sort of storage for the kids to take their figures with them on trips, but there’s no specific provision for any of that. You would have to throw out the few details built into them and use the studs on the new 2 x 6 brackets at the bottom to plug your figures on.

LEGO Trolls World Tour, Pop Village Celebration (41255), Bubble Pod A

One of the pods has a musical jukebox and some accessories whereas the other serves as a sleeping room with a bed for Guy Diamond and the throne-like mini stage for Tiny Diamond. At least that’s what i figured it is supposed to represent.

LEGO Trolls World Tour, Pop Village Celebration (41255), Bubble Pod B

Since I typically dismantle my models after a short while because I simply don’t have enough room to keep them around forever, I didn’t quite know what to do with the pods. They are bulky and can’t be used for much else, but lucky enough, inspiration struck and I turned one of them into a “glow worm swarm” type of light for my nightstand using a simply battery-based LED light chain as you can find them in many crafting/ home decoration stores. It works quite well and gives just off the right amount of light when you wake up in the middle of the night and need just that bit of light, but not too much to hurt your eyes.

LEGO Trolls World Tour, Pop Village Celebration (41255), Bubble Pod Lamp

So what’s the overall verdict? If you or your little ones are a fan of the movie, then there is certainly some value in the figures and overall model. As a generic play set for kids who haven’t seen the film I can’t see the value, however. Even the main house is ultimately just another storage option for the creatures and beyond that there is little to play with. It looks nice and is stable, but that’s where it ends.

I’m in fact pretty sure you could get an even better deal from another toy manufacturer who is also a licensee for Trolls at much lower cost. Aside from the special figures there’s just not enough here to warrant an investment. For adults this is even more useless as there is little to gain here in terms of valuable rare parts or any such thing that occasionally might want you to consider some off-beat set.

I satisfied my own curiosity with this set, but there is no reason to take this any further. It’s kind of sad, as I could see the potential for such a colorful, sprawling world and I’d likely love it, but overall it’s pretty lackluster and would need a lot more attention to detail to really turn this into something. Disappointing as it may be, ultimately Trolls World Tour can’t break out of this license dump corner, so my initial fears weren’t entirely unwarranted.

Baby Alarm – Baby Elephant Jungle Rescue (41421) and Dr. Wu’s Laboratory – Baby Dinosaurs Breakout (75939)

One of my more specific obsessions with LEGO is that I try to get my hands on as many of the molded animals as I possibly can. Unfortunately the company has the bad habit of putting many of the coolest creatures, be that mammoths, dinosaurs, sharks, polar bears or whatever in rather expensive sets. It’s of course just a sales tactic, but it’s not particularly nice of them, even more so since it means that those animals remain costly even on the secondary market such as Bricklink. So I have to make do with what I can afford and lucky enough, there’s some interesting sets this year with the LEGO Friends Jungle Rescue series and also some new molds for LEGO Jurassic World.

LEGO Friends, Baby Elephant Jungle Rescue (41421), Box

First let’s have a look at the Friends Baby Elephant Jungle Rescue (41421). This is the first set I was actually able to procure because due to the Corona virus crisis product availability for these new releases still isn’t that great, especially when you need to keep an eye on the price. At a regular price of 20 Euro it’s not entirely out of reach, but the typical discounts make this effectively a 15 Euro set, which is even better. For that it’s pretty good, actually. I can tell you that beforehand.

LEGO Friends, Baby Elephant Jungle Rescue (41421), Overview

The main attraction is of course the little blue baby elephant. Some people have complained about it not being grey, but hey, it’s Friends we’re talking about! The Bright Light Blue isn’t that bad, especially when you consider that the mother and sister elephant in the Jungle Rescue Base (41424) are Medium Blue and Lavender, respectively. There’s really no reason to get wound up over this. For me it’s also a bit of a funny coincidence in that it reminds me of some elephants in video games I used to play in the 1990s that similarly used such colors, not “realistic” greys.

LEGO Friends, Baby Elephant Jungle Rescue (41421), Baby Elephant

In the play fantasy of the set the little unlucky elephant is supposed to be caught in a mud puddle somewhere in the jungle under a tree. This is displayed in the main scenery piece. Rather untypical for Friends sets it’s actually executed reasonably well and very usable. It’s also looking nice enough.

The mud is represented by some Dark Tan bricks of different types forming a tray in which a panel is sliding upon some tiles. You’re meant to put the elephant on this contraption and then literally pull it out. The one weak spot here is that the panel itself isn’t locked into place by rails or similar and thus falls out of its position easily. This gets a bit annoying over time and would have been easily avoidable with some extra elements.

LEGO Friends, Baby Elephant Jungle Rescue (41421), Tree, Front Left View

On that same not, a few bricks more would have helped to avoid this feeling of things only being half finished. The many exposed studs on the mud and the tree give the impression that they had to stop to not stretch the brick allotment budget at the cost of things being not fixated as firmly as they possibly might have been. E.g. the Lime Green bamboo stalk element is easy to break of accidentally. It seems to obvious me that they could have clamped it into place with another curved slope on top.

LEGO Friends, Baby Elephant Jungle Rescue (41421), Tree, Front Right View

As I said, the tree is small, but fleshed out enough to convey that idea. Still, I feel that that one extra branch could have been added on top with an arch element. that might also have allowed to add a web for the spider or include a second one. Another idea might have been to include a parrot, a small bird or a nest to cover the top.

LEGO Friends, Baby Elephant Jungle Rescue (41421), Tree, Back Side View

While the front is structured reasonably, the back side is rather plain. The Dark Orange studs are alternate positions for the spider, by the way, but sure enough could have been used for something else.

LEGO Friends, Baby Elephant Jungle Rescue (41421), Vehicle, Front Left View

The rescue vehicle is your standard run-off-the-mill Friends car with the necessary modifications and variations to fit this particular set. It literally has been done a million times and at this point is nothing special. For me it would have made more sense if they had created a somewhat larger pick-up truck with a sufficiently large platform and an actual hoist.

LEGO Friends, Baby Elephant Jungle Rescue (41421), Vehicle, Aft Left View LEGO Friends, Baby Elephant Jungle Rescue (41421), Vehicle, Aft Right View LEGO Friends, Baby Elephant Jungle Rescue (41421), Vehicle, Front Right View

Moving on, the other set is Dr. Wu’s Laboratory – Baby Dinosaurs Breakout (75939). It’s in the same price range as the Friends set, so no extra comments on that. The same rules apply.

LEGO Jurassic World, Dr. Wu's Laboratory (75939), Box

In addition to the two bay dinosaurs the set comes with two minifigures – Dr. Wu and Owen Grady – plus a sizable chunk of lab equipment. The latter often feels like thrown on after the fact, that is it gives the impression of having been constructed around the dinosaurs to bulk up the content of the box, not organically create an environment for the little tykes. It seems they wanted to do the baby dinos, but didn’t quite know what to do with them once the decision was made to create the new molds.

LEGO Jurassic World, Dr. Wu's Laboratory (75939), Overview

LEGO Jurassic World, Dr. Wu's Laboratory (75939), Baby Dinos, Left View

You heard that right, both of the creatures are completely new creations just for this set. I’m pretty sure, though, that we’ll get them in different  colors in other sets down from here on.

 

LEGO Jurassic World, Dr. Wu's Laboratory (75939), Baby Dinos, Right View

The baby Triceratops would of course mix well with its “parent” in Triceratops Rampage (75937).The Ankylosaurus isn’t an orphan child, either and finds its mom or dad in House of Gyrospheres (75941). This is insofar remarkable as the big version is also a completely new mold debuting in this particular set.

 

As a small side build there’s a lab table, which to me is actually a bit macabre. With its inverted slopes on the underside and the white “ceramic” tiles on top it more looks like a section table in a pathology lab. On the bright side, they included the transparent orange brick with the mosquito amber print, which is a new item and highly desirable as a decoration piece, not just for this dinosaur stuff.

LEGO Jurassic World, Dr. Wu's Laboratory (75939), Table, Right View LEGO Jurassic World, Dr. Wu's Laboratory (75939), Table, Left View

As I wrote already, the lab itself looks kinda *meh*. In my case it looks even more bland because I never use the stickers, yet the set relies heavily on them to represent large computer/ video screens. That’s perhaps my biggest peeve here – they could at least have included one of the screens as an actual print to spice things up. More generally speaking, that’s also the one thing I feel is missing – just one more small extra. I could for instance also have gone for eggs in Light Bluish Grey with brown speckles. that would have been pretty awesome!

LEGO Jurassic World, Dr. Wu's Laboratory (75939), Lab, Front View

Things don’t look much better from the back side, further seemingly reinforcing my point of this being mostly an afterthought.

LEGO Jurassic World, Dr. Wu's Laboratory (75939), Lab, Back Side View

Overall both sets are what they are – meant to sell the animals with everything around them being just a “free” extra. The Friends one surprisingly manages to fare much, much better in terms of actual usefulness and play value. The Jurassic World set on the other set would be rather disposable if it wasn’t the only way to get the new dino babies. It’s very forgettable, but hey, at least some new Dark Blue parts for my collection….! The consolation here is that the animals are executed superbly, so I don’t mind the rest being mediocre.

Something good, something bad – Lady Liberty (40367) and Good Morning Sparkle Babies! (70847)

Today I’m going to roll two smaller sets into one review for practical reasons, both of which I bought somewhat spontaneously to sooth my nerves and pamper myself at the LEGO store in Leipzig when I was roaming the premises after an unpleasant doctor visit. That being the case and the sets therefore having been bought at full price no matter what I can at least spare you my usual ramblings on overall value vs. price.

Worst Set of the Year?

LEGO The LEGO Movie 2, Good Morning Sparkle Babies! (70847), Box

To get things out of the way, let’s start with what I basically consider the worst LEGO set of the year. Sadly, as a tie-in for The LEGO Movie 2 this should be at least some sort of fun, but  the Good Morning Sparkle Babies! (70847) is unfortunately so lackluster, you wonder why they ever bothered to bring it out.

LEGO The LEGO Movie 2, Good Morning Sparkle Babies! (70847), Overview

I fully intended to buy this set for a number of reasons, but even though I didn’t expect it to be particularly elaborate or outstanding, I never would have thought it to be this underwhelming or even terrible. Point in case: It’s basically a parts and figure pack marketed as a full set where unfortunately nothing gels and the parts don’t make up for the lack of play or collector’s value.

LEGO The LEGO Movie 2, Good Morning Sparkle Babies! (70847), Babies

First and foremost of course I like most likely 99% of people who buy this set had my eye on the baby figures. Oddly enough, though LEGO had the mold for quite a while now, it’s seriously underused and the figures only pop up once every blue moon in a handful of sets. As you would have guessed, this makes them highly coveted items that fetch good prices on Bricklink. The two little tykes represented in this set will do nothing to improve this situation, as this is the first time we actually get Bright Pink (baby pink) and Dark Cyan (teal) bodies and a lot of people will be desperately scavenge for matching heads sans “tattoos” to integrate the babies into their City landscapes or whatever. That said, the two kids certainly are appealing and would enliven many a scenery.

LEGO The LEGO Movie 2, Good Morning Sparkle Babies! (70847), Island

Now for the ugly part. The rest of the set is pretty much a stinker. The sad, sad irony is that each component on its own would actually be useful, in particular the plant parts in new colors. It’s just that there aren’t enough of them to do anything serious with them and to boot, they have been slapped on to some piece of island that looks like it was a lowly intern’s morning task before lunch break. I’ts just *ugh*. I get what they were aiming for, but please, could we at least have gotten a real palm/ bush with three leaves or something like that? As it is, it’s nothing more than a frustrating glimpse into a happy, colorful dream world that could have been. Imagine how awesome it actually would look to see your babies stomping around on a larger meadow surrounded by those crazy colored plants!

On a whole this is an epic fail and nothing can justify buying the set other than really having the hots for the baby figures and being crazy enough to shell out the dosh. This really just strikes me as yet another misguided attempt to quickly cash in on the movie without making any effort whatsoever. Hell, even the Emmet and Lucy minifigures are the same boring ones found in pretty much every other set of this ilk.

Little green Cutie

LEGO Brickheadz, Lady Liberty (40367), Box

On to more pleasant things, the bright spot on the horizon for me on this day was the Brickheadz Lady Liberty (40367). I was actually quite surprised to find it in the LEGO store, after all, given what I overheard last time. That and the fact that the set had long been out in other countries and sold out quickly. I had little hope to be able to catch it, but sometimes there is such a thing as lucky circumstance, I guess.

LEGO Brickheadz, Lady Liberty (40367), Front Left View

Over the years I have only bought a handful of Brickheadz overall and whenever I did, it usually boiled down to getting my hands on some of the special printed tiles or rare parts in unusual colors that these sets often contained. I’ve never been much of a collector and as a matter of fact the only such figure I kept around is Thanos, which somehow tickles my “Aww, he’s cute!” senses in all his Medium Lavender glory. He’s now going to get a permanent companion with this little green lady, as she’s cute, too, and I can’t find it in my heart to dismantle her for the parts.

LEGO Brickheadz, Lady Liberty (40367), Front Right View

There’s very little that I don’t like or that I think could be improved here. The model is cleverly done and even employs the “textile folds” technique using the cut-off wedge slopes also used on the larger Statue of Liberty (21042) in the Architecture series just as it borrows the same trick with the golden hair piece for the flames. Due to these details you end up with a reasonably complex build and a model with a well-structured surface that feels weighty and voluminous and not just like a tile-covered regular box like some other Brickheadz.

LEGO Brickheadz, Lady Liberty (40367), Back Right View

As for the things I would improve: First, the crown piece clearly could have benefited from including a disc/ dish piece to cover up the center like it’s done on the bigger version. In fact this could have looked even better here, as they could have used a 4 x 4 dish which is a little less steep in curvature/ less convex and would have blended in better. The other thing I would have done is made the figure taller. I know, they are all meant to be about the same height so they form a nice even line on the shelf, but this is one case where an exception could have been made. Adding e.g. two more rows of bricks at the bottom would have allowed for more details on the robes and looked more elegant. These are minor things, though, and a true collector might have different opinions on the matter.

LEGO Brickheadz, Lady Liberty (40367), Back Left View

In any case, this is one of the few Brickheadz that genuinely should appeal to everyone, be that occasional LEGO buyers, experienced builders looking for a satisfying diversion amidst other projects or the aforementioned collectors hunting down every set in this line of products. I certainly still have warm and fuzzy feelings as little Lady Liberty is looking at me from the shelf while I’m writing this article…

April Swaddle

Regrettably the publishing cycle for the LEGO Friends magazine has been cut down to  only once every two months here in Germany, so at least in terms of quantity we don’t get to enjoy some stuff that is published in other countries (I would have loved the wardrobe and hats stuff from the Polish Nr. 2 issue), but at least this month’s edition is good and makes up a bit.

LEGO Magazine, Friends, April/ May 2019, Cover

Yupp, it’s all about the baby stuff. I even weirdly enough enjoyed the comic and of course having the little swaddled baby in the buildable extras bag is just great. This little minifigure-ish thing has so far only been included in two Friends sets and therefore isn’t cheap on Bricklink, so buying this issue is the perfect opportunity to get it in a cost efficient manner. It would have been even better with some more parts to build an actual crib or changing table.

The rest of the mag is also pretty decent. As I already mentioned, the comic is kind of fun, there are some demanding puzzles and even the bunny poster is fitting with Easter not being that far off. Really not much to complain about this time around. i just wish I’d get my dose of this stuff every month…