LEGO® DREAMZZz brought us some of the more interesting and creative sets during the course of the year, and the new wave is no exception. While covering a relatively diverse range of source material, the sets were relatively expensive, with no sets priced with an RRP less than $AUD34.999 [(Mateo and Z-Blob ; Bunchu Bunny]. The latest wave may be a little smaller, with only 5 boxed sets in the wave, but we have 2 sets under $AUD25, and none over $AUD150/USD 90. LET’s take a quick look the smallest set in the wave: 71472 Mateo’s Off Road Car.

71471 Mateo’s Off-Road Car

With just 94 pieces, and costing $USD9.99/AUD15.99,this is the smallest ‘Boxed’ DREAMZZz Set to date.

Like all LEGO DREAMZZz sets, it has brightly decorated instructions, with a cartoonish story included inside.

The set has 2 basic forms – one an off road buggy, while the other is a small quadcopter. There is one minifigure: Mateo, essentially the same as before, but without his cape or Iconic pencil.

I am surprised at how relatively few regular bricks are present in this set: maybe five: One with studs on the side, and several with a cross hole then them. Certainly, there are many more plates. Otherwise, loads of cones and modified plates and brackets, along with the bright transparent green 2×2 ‘maxaroni’ elements.

The Minifigure

The minifigure included in this set is a ‘Bare Bones’ Mateo figure: he has no beltaccessory, cape, and no brick built pencil. The torso and legs have the same printing seen elsewhere, and the face has the same determined smirk/smile seen previously. There is an hourglass accessory included, a stud shooting gun and Z-Blob exists here in his tiniest form.

There is a nightmare creature, fashioned from a brick with studs on 4 sides, 2 leaves, a horn and a printed eye tile. As such, it gives you a feeling that it was put together out of tablescrap.

The Build

We start off by building something resembling a speeder bike, with cross-shaped axle holes, as well as small lateral winglets. A couple of stickers leave no doubt that this is part of Z-Blob’s dreamcrafting while a set of jets on the back leave you with no doubt as to just which direction he will travel.

From here we have a choice: a car or copter.

A: The Car

We attach axles through the fuselage, and attach some of the angled tubular elements, attaching more elements at the other end to allow the wheels into place. with the angled wheel supports, it almost appears as though the vehicle is springing along. However, I think I prefer the B build…

B. The Quadcopter

It doesnt take much effort to pull the buggy apart, and adjust the angle of the curves, as well as change the technic connectors to allow the addition of propellors.

There is something about the quadcopter form: it might just be that we see it more frequently, particularly in the second half of the first season, or perhaps my desire to swoosh is greater than my desire to zoom.

This quadcopter is a smaller scale to the one seen on screen, which might be better built using a combination of this set and the elements in 71454 Mateo and Z Blob Robot.

On the whole, I really enjoyed this small build. As with all DREAMZZz sets, the model options, as well as the colour artwork in the instructions just add to the enjoyment of the building experience. It’s hard to just walk past this one. I am especially excited to see smaller sets enter the DREAMZZz in this range, as it did feel like an omission last time.

At a recent roundtable, the design team were asked why small sets were left out the first wave. Essentially, the goal was to have a Big Bang with the wave: no smaller sets, all impressive. At the same time, they consider this year’s 5 sets to be the continuation of that first wave.

I have to admit, the more I play with DREAMZZz sets, the more I feel they embrace the essence of vintage sets: multiple ‘back of the box’ builds, even if we cannot reverse engineer them as easily as we could ‘back in the day,’ to say nothing of bringing us the best of an original LEGO IP.

I give this set a solid 4 out of 5 arbitrary praise units. It’s fun to build, fun to swap between builds and inexpensive! What’s not to like?

71471 Mateo’s Off Road Car goes on sale on January 1, and you can find it on the LEGO Website HERE [affiliate links] Will it be a day1 purchase? Or a case of wait and see? Why don’t you leave your comments below.

You can keep up to date with the Rambling Brick on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr (or just sign up for our mailing list) and find some extra content on Instagram and TikTok. And feel free to share this post with anyone who might be interested…

Until Next Time,

Play Well!

This set was provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes. All Opinions are my own.