Last year DK Publishing released two interesting books; LEGO Ninjago: Build Your Own Adventure, and LEGO Friends: Build Your Own Adventure. And recently they added two more books to the line; LEGO Star Wars: Build Your Own Adventure, and LEGO City: Build Your Own Adventure. The books are similar to the discontinued LEGO BrickMaster line, with included LEGO building elements and minifigs. The new books however are designed a bit differently than the LEGO BrickMaster books; instead of the book itself having a thick storage compartment for LEGO elements, now we get a slip-case that contains a normal hardbound book and a separate box with LEGO parts. I quite like this series (see my previous review here), so let’s take a closer look at the two new books. 🙂
➡ LEGO STAR WARS: BUILD YOUR OWN ADVENTURE – A book with bricks that inspires kids to build, play, and learn, LEGO Star Wars: Build Your Own Adventure combines more than 50 inspirational ideas for building with enthralling story starters from the world of LEGO Star Wars. Organized into five chapters based on different planets in the Star Wars universe, readers will use their builds to break prisoners out on Cloud City and spy on the Imperial Army on Endor. Model ideas will inspire readers of various ages and abilities, with an appropriate mix of easy, medium, and harder builds. LEGO Star Wars: Build Your Own Adventure will get kids inspired to build and play out adventures of their own, and it comes with bricks and instructions to build an exclusive LEGO Star Wars model to add to their collection. The boxed set includes: an 80-page book filled with stories, building instructions, tips, and ideas. LEGO bricks to build an exclusive LEGO Star Wars Y-wing Starfighter model, and a LEGO Star Wars Rebel Pilot minifigure. All the inspiration you need to build your own LEGO Star Wars adventure. Regular price: $24.99, sale price (at the time of publishing this post): $10.99 – BUY ON AMAZON
The main model that comes with the book is the LEGO Star Wars Y-wing, which looks sweet, and fits really well with the LEGO Star Wars MicroFighters series. As mentioned in the description, the minifigure included is a Rebel Pilot. The book itself is divided into five chapters (Home One, Hoth, Tatooine, Cloud City and Endor) and each chapter features a number of other models that you can use for inspiration. Please note that these are not alternate models that you can build with the same included pieces, but simply suggestions to build from your own LEGO collection. However the models are small enough that most LEGO fans with an average collection should be able to replicate them without much difficulty. The models can also be used as seed-ideas for larger creations. Below are a few sample pages from the book.
➡ LEGO CITY: BUILD YOUR OWN ADVENTURE – A book with bricks that inspires kids to build, play, and learn, LEGO City: Build Your Own Adventure combines more than 50 inspirational ideas for building with enthralling story starters from the world of LEGO City. Organized into five chapters structured around different environments from the city world, readers will use their builds to aid a sunken boat in the city’s marina and help control a forest fire in a nearby park. Model ideas will inspire readers of various ages and abilities, with an appropriate mix of easy, medium, and harder models. LEGO City: Build Your Own Adventure will get kids inspired to build and play out adventures of their own, and comes with bricks and instructions to build an exclusive LEGO City model to add to their collection. The boxed set includes: an 80-page book filled with stories, building instructions, tips, and ideas. LEGO bricks to build an exclusive LEGO City Fire Truck model, and a LEGO City Firefighter minifigure. All the inspiration you need to build your own LEGO City adventure. Regular price: $24.99, sale price (at the time of publishing this post): $10.99 – BUY ON AMAZON
From the four books in the Build Your Own Adventure series, this is probably the least exciting at first glance. The main model is a fire truck, and the included minifigure is a firefighter – neither of them are particularly special. The five chapters of the book cover various firefighting scenarios (park fire, water rescue, etc.) and also include other LEGO City settings and vehicles that can be incorporated into your own LEGO City. While these models may not be as exciting as LEGO Star Wars or LEGO Ninjago, they are good examples of generic useful items that can fit in pretty much any theme. Again, these models can’t be built from the included bricks, but they are simply there to give you inspiration and ideas. Below are a few sample pages.
Like I said in my previous review, I have been a fan of the LEGO BrickMaster books because they offer hours of play for kids; there is a story to read, characters to play with, and included LEGO elements for building. I do like that in this new format the book and the box are separate but still stay together within the slip-case; a handy way to keep everything together for transportation and storage. I’m happy to see that now there are four books in the collection, and I expect that there is going to be even more – perhaps LEGO Nexo Knights and LEGO Elves? While the books are recommended for children 8+, I admit I enjoy them as an adult as well.
What do you think? Do you like the LEGO BrickMaster books? And what do you think of this new line of building your own adventure? Do you feel they are better or worse than the BrickMaster books? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below! 😉
And you might also like to check out the LEGO Books section for more book reviews, or select from the following related posts:
The Star Wars one looks great. And as you said, the Y-wing fits with the Micro Fighters. I think the Ninjago and Star Wars ones were the best so far. They will likely do Nexo Knights too, which should be great. I also like that the bricks are now in a separate compartment. This makes the books look more like real books.
Those two are my favorites also. 🙂
I’ll see if I could find the Star Wars book cheaply in Sweden…
On another note, I’m pretty psyched due to the ‘Return Of The Yellow Legs (!)’.
Is this a completely random occurrence, an indication of a Retro Space release, or a slick business move due to the high popular demand?
http://brickset.com/sets/5004424-1/Cops-and-Robbers-minifigure-collection
I don’t think those legs are yellow. They are bright-light-orange, and came with the Fisherman in Series 3 of the Collectible Minifigs. You can clearly see the color difference between the hands and the legs. LEGO would not make “naked” minifigs every again, because of our dirty minds. 🙄
Naaahhh…
I suspected that… Thankfully I still have a bunch of yellow legs saved in my collection…
I guess I shouldn’t ask what are you doing with them. 🙄
I’m just an inncoent humble space fan… *Blush*
Uhmm, anyway, at least it’s a pretty rare color…
LOL… okay, I will believe you. 🙄