Early in the publicity cycle for LEGO DREAMZzz, there was a Ninjago Short, in which we saw some of the imaginative vehicles that we would encounter in LEGO DREAMZzz. One was the ultimate Monster Truck: a Truck (well…car) crossed with a monster. Crocodile Car does what it says on the box. There is, of course, a Monster Truck as the secondary build, to say nothing of one of my favourite figures for the theme.

As always, LEGO DREAMZzz sets come with some fantastic artwork on the manual’s cover and throughout the instructions.

The Knoller-in-Chief has laid out the elements for us again, and we have a few specific standouts: the Speed Champions Base 6×12; four azure wheels along with the appropriate number. oftyres. Red elements will make up the bulk of the car, while Blues, dark azure and dark blue, along with vibrant ‘eyeburner’ yellow make up the more monstrous components. As you can see, the vibrant yellow fluoresces, while the blue ‘leaf’ elements do not. This property seems to be limited to the Transparent Bright Green ones.

The minifigures:

There are 3 true minifigures and 2 of the ‘ little guys’ in this set. We have seen Jayden before, as well as Logan, while Cooper is now in a racing suit rather than his pyjamas seen in 71455

Here are our heroes and Jayden , who is being rescued from the Nightmare King’s forces… again. Cooper’s race suit continues the design motif from his pyjamas, and incorporates the hourglass on the top, as well as his helmet. This figure has the same head/face prints as that included with the 71455 Grimkeeper the Cage Monster.

But, for me, the minifigure highlight of this set is Night Hunter: one of the Nightmare King’s lieutenants, Night Hunter wears a broad brimmed hat, with an eye over the middle, while his head is identical to that seen on the basic Grimspawn we have built in other sets. He wears a rubbery scarf, which heads out horizontally to the figure’s left, forming the silhouette of a grasping, clawed hand – reminiscent of various shadow creatures seen on screen. His torso shows a white shirt, with a bright light violet pattern. There is evidence of the jacket and shirt having been repaired over the years, while he has chains hanging about his torso and trousers! Printing extends from the torso to the legs, with evidence that his shirt was not tucked in. He carries a brick-built crossbow (complete with its own little eye-sight). Unfortunately, the figure tends to topple over while freestanding and holding the crossbow.

Night Hunter’s left hand is silver, while the other is black. On screen, this hand has been replaced by a hook. While it is disappointing that they have left this detail out, I appreciate the fact that having 2 standard hands makes it easier for kids to place things in his hands.

Night Hunter is accompanied by Snivel – one of the Grimspawn, this time with an oversized head, and flame heading off on an angle, as well as a pair of shoulder guards.

The build

We start off the build by putting together motorcycles for both Night Hunter and Snivel. They are reasonably simple builds and suit the characters nicely.

Snivel’s cycle is fairly small, and incorporates an offset plate to keep Snivel centred. The handle bars tip forward on a hinge, giving a Vespa/Motor scooter-like vibe while transparent purple flame comes from the exhaust pipes.

Hunter’s bike is larger, has flame coming from the handlebars, and features transparent purple bat-wings. Bright reddish violet elements provide a contrast to the grey of the frame. There is a small bed on the back, with room for a sleeping Jayden.

From here, we move on to the core of the car:

We start by filling in the cockpit details, as well. as build up the front and rear ends of the car. An axle runs through the cabin, and joins a lever over the rear trunk with a disk launcher in the front.

The Click axle points above the axles holes allow us to attach the legs later, and are the same Technic joints seen in the buildable characters we have already seen in our reviews of 71453,71454 and 71455.

In the meantime, we build up the doors, bonnet and headlights of the car, before adding the wheels. The wheels are mounted on continuous axles, with a connector to plug into the +socket. We add the windscreen, with a tile over the top to tuck everyone in. The final result is a fun-looking monster truck (in the traditional sense). There is no real suspension, but the cabin seats 2 figures and the chassis looks well elevated. the disk launcher has a respectable range, and offers a degree of fun.

Choose your Path.

All DREAMZzz sets bring us an opportunity to make a choice with the way we build the final set – the last bag of parts can be built up in a couple of ways: one is the eponymous Crocodile Car. The Other is what I shall describe as a Monstrous Truck.

The Crocodile form uses the vibrant yellow 2×2 with arch and hole in 5 modules to create an articulated tale, decorated with offset tiles and cheese slopes. A blue ‘leaf’ element is attached to the end of the tail. The lower jaw is a repurposed boat element, while a collection of plates and some wonderfully printed tiles make up the snout and eyes. The legs incorporate the new Technic click joints with barrel elements in the front legs, while the rear legs use the ‘plain vanilla’ brick construction, with wedge and sloped elements functioning as coverage for the hip joints.

A small gear at the base of the tail allows us to wave it from side to side.

There is plenty of room within the Crocodile’s mouth to deal with any miscreant grimspawn than happen into its way.

Our ‘Monstrous truck’ leaves the original wheels in place but builds up the car’s rear end and adds jaws to the front fender. The base of the Crocodile’s mouth has also been recycled, this time as a speed boat.

As a truck, I really like this vehicle. You know where you stand with it, and it rolls freely on the floor. The front jaws have enough movement to close, and I love the blue plumes firing out the back like some form of otherworldly supercharger.

While the look is not as iconic as the crocodile car, I feel this is the better toy. Both forms took 15-20 minutes to build up from the baseline car, so changeover is significantly faster than if this were a similarly sized 3in1 set.

In conclusion

This is one of the iconic sets of the DREAMZzz theme. The core model (a big red racing car)is one of the LEGO Staples, and I was almost expecting Kai to Jump out of it! Adding the crocodile’s limbs, head, and tail gave us the level of crazy mashup design, where everything goes just a little bit too far, that we came to expect from sets in the sets based on the first LEGO Movie back in 2014. And that was certainly a bumper year for LEGO sets.

That said, I feel the rolling truck is a more practical toy: you can roll it across the floor, and zoom it around the house, while threatening to eat any misplaced teddy bears.

The minifigure collection is pretty good: Night Hunter is a highlight, while Cooper, with his racing helmet, is exclusive here. Logan and Snivel suffer from the stability issues that plague the little guys, but they both have seats on their respective vehicles. It would be an easy fix to include a couple of offset plates for these figures to be supported by or even a small piece of landscape. Jayden has appeared in several other sets, but I still love his unicorn pyjamas and the fact that an orthodontic brace has made it into the LEGOVerse.

The two motorcycles are fun, effective builds, with Snivel’s harking back to the early days of minifigure motorcycles back in 1978 (and earlier). They are both pretty stable and eminently zoomable.

At AUD$104.99/USD59.99/62.99€/£57.99, it clocks in just shy of 500 pieces – which feels like what we should expect after last year’s inflationary correction. The set is a lot of fun, with both crazy and playable construction options.

The set will be ship on August 1st but is available for preorder now. If you are interested, consider using the affiliate link below: it should redirect to your local store. The Rambling Brick might receive a small commission for any purchases made.

What do you think of this Mashup? Are you on Tteam Croc Car or Team Monstrous Truck? Why not share your feedback below, and let us know what you think.

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Until Next Time,

Play Well!