The LEGO Movie sets are now available, and there are lots of things to talk about. Actually, I haven’t been this excited about LEGO sets for quite some time. In fact, I believe that The LEGO Movie and the accompanying LEGO sets are a direct (and brilliant) response to those who have been accusing LEGO of stifling creativity with their licensed product lines. The LEGO Movie sets are transfused with so much creativity and possibility that the first couple of sets I have put together from this line kept me up until the wee hours of the morning! 🙂
Today I will show you four of The LEGO Movie sets I have had a chance to put together so far, and we will cover the rest of them shortly as well. We have discussed The LEGO Movie sets previously (see: Unveiling of The LEGO Movie Sets), and you likely know already that The LEGO Movie won’t be out until early February of next year. However you definitely don’t have to wait for The LEGO Movie to enjoy the sets. They are designed to be intuitive and self-explanatory sets that anyone could dive right into. As I said; these are way too much fun! 😀
➡ #70800 THE LEGO MOVIE GETAWAY GLIDER: Soar away from the robots with the Getaway Glider! Yee-hah! Out in the Old Wild West, trouble is brewing. Use your creative skills and help Emmet to build a Getaway Glider and escape from the robots with the Piece of Resistance. But beware, they have guns and the Robo Sheriff’s horse can rear up on its back legs. Position the tail wings and cow horns, flap the wings to soar away, and use the weathercock to guide you to safety. Includes 3 minifigures with assorted weapons and accessories: Emmet, Deputron and Sheriff Not-A-Robot. 104 pieces. Price $12.99 – BUY HERE
This is one of the smallest sets in the series, and you get the picture right away of what these sets are about; creativity and free-building! Emmet is in trouble and he uses his Piece of Resistance (the red pack on his back), to throw together a glider from completely unconventional elements.
Even though this is a small set you get so many interesting and new elements it is totally worth to pick at least one of these sets up. First of all there is the Piece of Resistance in itself. This is a new piece that is two bricks tall with a stud on top and a square hole on one side (like the LEGO headlight bricks) where the neck-bracket is attached. It offers a lot of interesting new opportunities that I’m just now exploring. There is also the chicken on top in a new color, a new gun, and a brand new mustache piece!
All of the minifigures have front and back printing with great detailing. I particularly like the robot heads. They are pearl-dark-gray with excellent printing. One new piece I don’t like so much is Emmet’s hair. The front looks great, but there is that little piece of hair sticking out at the side, which looks great in The LEGO Movie trailers, but didn’t work out so well in LEGO form; it looks like a cute little bow, instead of hair. Also, Emmet has a double sided head (the same in all of the sets except one), and when his scared expression is at the back of his head, it is visible below his hairline. This is a problem in several double sided heads LEGO released recently, and I’m not sure why they are not fixing the problem by either lowering the back of the hair, or changing the graphics a tad.
➡ #70801 THE LEGO MOVIE MELTING ROOM: Help Emmet to escape from the Melting Room! Danger! Emmet has been captured by Lord Business’ Robo Police who’ve taken him to the Melting Room. A Robo SWAT has chained and cuffed Emmet to a tilting, rotating laser machine and is trying to zap the Piece of Resistance from his back using a huge adjustable laser. Help Wyldstyle to slip into the Melting Room undetected, smash through the chains with the axe and free Emmet. Includes 3 minifigures with assorted weapons: Emmet, Wyldstyle and a Robo SWAT. 122 pieces. Price: $12.99 – BUY HERE
This is the second smallest set in The LEGO Movie line. It is a great selection of interesting parts, plus three minifigures. In fact, it comes with a unique, hooded version of Wyldstyle that I really-really like. The hood is rubbery instead of hard plastic, and has a little bit of printing inside showing off her hair, as well as some printing on the outside. Even though Wyldstyle is wearing all black, she is one of the most printed minifigures ever made by LEGO. She is printed on the front of her torso, the back of her torso, the front of her right hip and leg, her right feet and also her right arm. Yep, she definitely got style!
➡ #70802 THE LEGO MOVIE BAD COP’S PURSUIT: Chase Emmet in the flying police car with Bad Cop’s Pursuit! It’s high-speed action as Bad Cop chases Emmet along the train tracks in his flying police car. Flip out the lasers under Bad Cop’s car hood and unleash the laser cannons hidden underneath the doors. Watch out for the collapsing train bridge! There’s double trouble as Bad Cop fires his new blaster and the poseable Robo Crocodiles with huge snapping jaws and police lights on their back wait below. And when all seems lost for Emmet, turn the head on Bad Cop to transform him into Good Cop! Includes 2 minifigures with a weapon and assorted accessories: Emmet and Bad Cop/Good Cop. 314 pieces. Price: $29.99 – BUY HERE
From all the sets in The LEGO Movie series, I feel that this is the weakest. The flying police car has a really sleek design, but it has the same problems as the police vehicle in the #70808 The LEGO Movie Super Cycle Chase, which I will explain below when I talk about that set. Having said that, this set also has some interesting things to offer. Bad Cop comes with a nice two-toned helmet, and his new blaster can actually shoot! (This is the only set within The LEGO Movie theme with the new blaster, but it will also appear in 2014 LEGO Star Wars sets.)
➡ #70808 THE LEGO MOVIE SUPER CYCLE CHASE: Zoom away from the Robo Police SWAT car in Super Cycle Chase! No time to waste! Use your Master Builder skills to help Wyldstyle assemble a two-seater, flaming-fast dragster from the materials she collects. Help Emmet to escape from the Robo SWATs. Rev up the engine to jump over the spike strip road block and speed away. Dodge the Robo Police guns and their 4×4 SWAT car’s flick missiles and deadly dynamite. Includes 5 minifigures with assorted weapons and accessories: Emmet, Wyldstyle and 3 Robo SWATs. 514 pieces. Price: $49.99 – BUY HERE
This is one of my favorite sets in the series, and the first one I opened up. I absolutely love Wyldstyle’s dragster! It is such a cool and crazy vehicle with great details, great colors, and awesome graphics (all stickers). Building it was really fun with lots of surprises. I’m very impressed with the design details. If you like the superb contours of the LEGO Ninjago and the LEGO Legends of Chima vehicles, but you don’t want a vehicle that resembles an animal, you will love this dragster!
The dragster has a couple of issues, but they are easy fixes. For some strange reason the small wheels at the front are slightly offset by a blue Technic half-pin. As soon as I built this section I knew I had to fix that. I thought I would have to redesign the whole thing, but all I actually ended up doing was just taking the pin out. The wheels work perfectly fine without it.
The other issue is the curved orange slope assembly at the front. The four slopes are each attached by only one stud. This makes the front very fragile. It is easy to reattach the slopes and they don’t damage the vehicle structurally, but it annoyed me that just by looking at the dragster wrong the front fell apart. Within 15 minutes I came up with 6 different methods to strengthen the front, neither of them requiring more than 5 small pieces. I ended up going with a simple but elegant solution – one rod and two pins – to connect the bottom two slopes. After that the top slopes didn’t even need strengthening as they now sturdily rest on the bottom slopes. Why LEGO designers didn’t add these in the first place I don’t know.
And of course we have the police SWAT car in this set. It looks great on the pictures, and it looks even better in real life. The smooth curves are gorgeous and menacing looking at the same time, and the design details are impressive. The functionality of this vehicle however is another matter. Even though this is a pretty large vehicle, it can’t do much. Yes, you can roll it around, and there is a latch at the back you can open for accessing a small compartment for hiding stuff. There are also two hidden flick-fire missiles under the side-steps, but they are really hard to access and they are so close to the ground that when you hit them they plop right out in front of the car – not good. I don’t mind flick-fires, but they only work when they are aimed upwards in some kind of angle. So close to the ground they make no sense.
The inside of the vehicle is very disappointing. It is a 6×6 space, but it can ironically only fit one minifigure in its current configuration. And the only details are a small red steering wheel, and two small 1×2 red half-slopes; one representing the dashboard, and the other the back of a seat. This will definitely need some serious redesigning. I find it odd that such a large vehicle has so few features and so little playability.
The outside is an issue too; because there are few studs, there is no room for police robots to stand on or hang on to. There are two bars as handles, but they are placed all wrong. This vehicle is actually quite similar to the 4-wheel drive in the #6867 LEGO Super Heroes Loki’s Cosmic Cube Escape set, but even though that one is a smaller vehicle, it has more play-features and functionality. I guess police cars are only for chasing. 🙄
The minifigures in this set are excellent. You get three robots – perfect for building an army of these guys! Their uniforms are the same (printed both front and back), and they come with bullet-proof vests (printed with “Super Secret Police” at the back) and even a night-vision goggle! Finally LEGO is catching up on these! Emmet is the same as in other sets, and Wyldstyle has the same outfit as in other sets, but here she comes with her super-awesome hair-style and also a little hood piece (rubbery plastic). She is my most favorite female minifigure ever! Love the look, the attitude, and the hood! LEGO could have done a better job on her face though; she has a double sided head, but the two facial expressions are so similar it is hard to differentiate them. Anyway, she is still great!
Okay, I will leave you with these four sets for today. I will continue to review the other ones shortly. William is also going to review some of them in his Brick Breakdown series to look at unique building techniques, so please stay tuned! All in all I highly recommend The LEGO Movie sets. If you want to have some serious LEGO fun, pick some of these up! They should be available at all LEGO retailers, at official LEGO stores, and at the Online LEGO Shop.
So what do you think? How do you like The LEGO Movie sets? Did you get some already? Feel free to share your thoughts and your own review in the comment section below! 😉
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