My brother was recently visiting with his five children; three boys, and two girls, between the ages of 9 and 19. They are all huge LEGO fans and love My brother was recently visiting with his five children; three boys, and two girls, between the ages of 9 and 19. They are all huge LEGO fans and love coming over to our house to try out new LEGO sets. This also works for me, as I have a chance to get feedback from them that I can incorporate into reviews.
One of the more recent sets I had them build is the #41838 LEGO Travel Moments, part of a new LEGO collection called LEGO Build Together. The series focuses on imaginative play and family-building activities for kids aged 9+ and their families/friends. So far, two sets have been released in the series, the #41838 LEGO Travel Moments, and the #41839 LEGO Message Board.
The #41838 LEGO Travel Moments comes with five sets of instructions to build a world map in four sections, a buildable jet, four micro-build vehicles, and ten photo holders. The kids quickly divided the instructions and the numbered bags. This was the first set they built with paper bags for the parts, and they all commented on how awesome and environmentally friendly that was. They were impressed.
The first instruction booklet uses bags 1-3 and contains instructions for a micro ship as well as the left bottom corner of the map with South America, Antarctica, and a little slice of Africa. The youngest girl tackled this project and I was her helper.
The second instruction booklet uses bags 4-6 and contains instructions for a micro SUV with a trailer as well as North America, the Arctic, and part of Europe. The older girl took on this project with a bit of assistance from her mom.
The third instruction booklet uses bags 7-9 and contains instructions for a micro camper van as well as Africa, Australia, and parts of South-East Asia and Africa. The oldest boy built this section.
The fourth instruction booklet uses bags 10-13 and contains instructions for a micro train, the picture holders, as well as most of Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The youngest boy worked on this section. As it took him a bit longer to finish, I helped him with the picture holders at the end.
The fifth and final instruction booklet uses bags 14-15 and contains instructions to build the plane. The middle boy took on this task.
The kids got busy building. They all enjoyed putting together the micro vehicles and finished them quickly. The next task was to build their sections of the map. They are experienced LEGO builders, so they spread out the parts and followed the instructions carefully, while we also watched TV and chatted about everything. The only kid who remained pretty quiet was the one building the plane. He was fully absorbed. He was also the first one to finish and he proudly showed off the finished model. The other kids were amazed! Especially because the decorated pieces are printed! They knew how special that was!
At this point, there was a shift. The kids have been building for almost an hour, and while one boy finished an awesome plane, the others were caught in the tediousness of piecing the map together. For them, after building the micro vehicles that only took a few minutes at the beginning, there were no other special moments or discoveries. It was just placing tiny plates, tiles, and cheese slopes on a flat surface. And this was their second feedback. Building the map is not very enjoyable, even with a fun group of friends and family. The time required for each section is not distributed equally either. The person building the plane could have been given the task of also building the picture holders so everyone finishes about the same time.
Now the kids just wanted to finish and they helped each other to place the last pieces and finally assembled the four sections of the map. Their third feedback was that although the micro vehicles are cute and were fun to put together, because of their size, they can’t meaningfully interact with the map. They would have preferred smaller accessories like even tinier ships and vehicles that could be placed throughout the map. And while the plane is very cool, it also doesn’t fit the scale of the map very well.
The kids then decorated the picture holders with items they gathered during their vacation; a ticket from a theme park, a leaf, and some other odds and ends. The kids felt that the picture holders were a bit limiting in what they could hold and that they should have been a different color. The black is kind of dark and overpowering for an otherwise fairly colorful and cheerful set.
Then they had a lengthy discussion about how to use the printed 1×1 round tiles. They eventually decided to mark the places they had already been with the camera icons, and then each child used the suitcase icons to mark places they would still like to visit. They would have liked to see other icons to mark the map besides the cameras and suitcases. They mentioned images of stars, shells, trees, sports equipment, or just simple dots of different colors.
Overall, the building experience of this set is mixed. The highlights are the paper bags, the plane with all printed elements, the micro vehicles, and that the instructions are divided for group building. The not so positives are that building the map is boring and uninspired, that the vehicles don’t match up with the map, and that there aren’t many ways to interact with the finished set. Fortunately, the kids have enough parts to make up their own icons and mark the map as they like. I hope they will continue using it in some way. What I do know for sure is that they hold on to that plane and might even fight over it. It’s that cool.
The price of the #41838 LEGO Travel Moments is $149.99, which I feel is too high for what you get both in terms of parts and building experience. It shouldn’t be more than $100-$120. I commend LEGO for giving us more sets that incorporate group-building opportunities, but I think they will need to put more heart into these family-oriented sets. If you want to check it out for yourself, the set is available at the miscellaneous items section of the Online LEGO Shop.
What do you think? Do you have the LEGO Travel Moments set already, or are you thinking about getting it? Feel free to share your thoughts and own reviews in the comment section below!
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