Today we meet Mateo’s younger sister Izzie. In the Waking World of the characters in LEGO DREAMZzz, Bunchu Bunny is Izzie’s favourite anime character- she has a plush version, and Bunchu decorates her pyjamas. But when she is threatened by the Grimspawn in the Dream realm, Bunchu manifests and helps Izzie and her brother Mateo in their battle against the forces of the Nightmare King. We meet this character early in the series, and it makes sense that it is one of the entry-level sets in the new theme.

With only 259 pieces, this is the second smallest of the boxed sets. The front of the box shows a brightly coloured Bunchu Bunny skating to Izzie’s aid while one of the net-wielding Grimspawn attempts to run off with her plush toy in its net!

As is always the case with DREAMZzz sets, the instructions have terrific artwork throughout, from the cover (no second rate renders here) and with every significant stage in the build process. Here are some selected highlights:

Elements:

Thanks as always to the Knoller in Chief, here are the elements for this set all laid out: the palette is predominantly medium azure, with vibrant coral and bright yellowish-orange details. We see some of the barrel joints introduced in this theme, as well as the leaf element – this time in transparent orange – alas, it does not fluoresce under UV light. Dont worry – the Vibrant coral does!

There is one Minifigure in this set, as well as one of the ‘little guys’ – a Grimspawn in a helmet, with a transparent purple flame on the top. This figure features the same body as described with Dr Oz’s Spacebus. He carries a net to allow him to capture Izzie’s toy bunny.

Izzie’s figure is spectacular! Featuring armour plating front and back, as well as a coloured sash around her waist. this sah continues to the top of her hips while the tunic printing continues down her legs. She has dual moulded legs – medium azure and medium lavender. The shoulder pauldrons have been recoloured in lavender shades and her hair is a magnificent translucent, sparkly satin material with an elaborate mould. There are a number of stars, hearts and spots printed on her face. Izzie is accompanied by a toy of Bunchu, which fits onto a single stud.

I do have to say, I love her sword! Golden, with a transparent blue edge, and a stud on the side, it is a magnificent weapon.

The Build:

We start off building the Bunchu bunny Core: Head and Torso first, followed by the legs and arms. There are decidely more parts involved in building this compared with 71454 Mateo and Z-Blob Robot. There are lots more building details in the head and feet in particular. The Legs use the new barrel joints as well as curved maraconi 2×2 bricks in medium azure. The arms are built around regular old school macaroni tubes.

Bunchu is quite posable and stable. I am quite enarmoured with the amount of SNOT work used in the feet, to get the right shape for the feet. The antistuds under the feet allow for Bunchu to attach to isolated studs, or indeed roller skates.

I was a little disappointed to see the split appear in the back/rear aspect of a headlamp brick after a few moves using the ‘extension’ builds. (light bluish grey/medium stone grey for the record).

Choose your own ending:

All of the LEGO DREAMZzz sets provide alternative builds, that continue from the core model. In this case, the reader is presented to put Bunchu on roller skates, or else to give them the wings and stinger of a wasp. These options are not hard to switch between, although there is are a good number of elements which are included in only one version of the build. Sometimes, finding these elements makes switching between the 2 the hardest part of the exercise.

For the roller skating version, we have skates, running on tyre-less wheels that plug onto each foot, along with gaunltets on each hand. The yellow leaf elements are used here as jet blasts from the skates. I am a little disappointed that non of the bright yellowish orange pigment used in this set seems to fluoresce any more, whic suggests a change in pigment used 5 years ago, when we frequently saw a mixture of fluorescing and non fluorescing elements in this colour.

The Alternate build sees us placing wings on the back, with a step for izzie. This is relativeley weak and I feel could be held in a little more firmly if required. the wings are attached to the platform using a bricknic pin, fitted over a plate with vertical plate attached. By adding antennae to Bunshu’s head, they become control sticks for a Mech.

We also remove the tail, and add a small stinger.

This is another pretty fine set in the overall DREAMZzz range: The colour scheme is suitably cartoonish, as belies the characters (in Universe) origin; the use of curved elements gives Bunchu a nice organic feel, even if these lines are disrupted somewhat by the lines on the barrel joints.

Personally, my favourite is the Roller skating version.

I am delighted that this set contains a toy version of Bunshu: It gives us an insight into Izzie, and suggests that she is probably significantly younger than Mateo.

I realize after my initial building that I have the legs rotated so that they look a little messy, with the black part of the click Technic joint facing forward. This correction certainly improved the look of it.

Overall, this is a great DREAMZzz starter set, and goes well with the 71454 Mateo & Z-Blob set , or 71455 Grimkeeper the Cage Monster. Unlike Mateo, who appears in 6 sets overall across all price brackets, this is the only sub-$80USD/$140AUD set that features Izzie. appears in. If you are limiting the number of sets that you are planning to buy in the range, I recommend this one.

I was a little disappointed to see the early split in one of the headlamp bricks. I hope this is not a portent of things to come

• If you are interested, you can pick up this set from LEGO.com from August 1 2022 for $AUD34.99/$USD19.99/19.99€/£18.99/$CAD24.99 Please consider using this affiliate link: the Rambling Brick might receive a small commision, but you pay no more.

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Play Well!