Review

They took a car to the moon! 42182 Apollo LRV

BrankotheFather 18+, Lego, Review, technic , , , , , , ,

Admittedly, I like space, especially space science. I was prepared to be disappointed by this set, mostly because of the wheels. Initial photos showed that LEGO had decided to create these wheels as regular rubber tyres, whereas the real original wheels are made from really nifty mesh with metal strips.

I expected a somewhat shallow display model that missed most of the key elements that made the Lunar Roving Vehicle such a special machine. This is a battery electric vehicle (like a Tesla EV) with four individually driven wheels providing about 0.25hp each (much unlike a Tesla). This vehicle was used on Apollo 15, 16 and 17 in the early 1970’s to traverse the moon scape.

Despite my trepidation I was delighted by this set; it does not just provide a surprising accurate model of the LRV; but it also demonstrates how it was packed to travel to the moon, and highlights a lot of the components that are mounted on it. (yes; the rovers should still be sitting there, on the moon, waiting for someone to take it for another spin).

Seeing the back of the box I initially thought there would be 4 alternate models in the box, but no; there are two ways of presenting the final build; in packed configuration or in assembled form. There are heaps of details that stimulated me into reading up on the vehicle a bit more and the finished builds makes for a striking (and LARGE) model.

The set contains 1913 pieces, which is not a historic reference as far as I can tell, and has a recommended price of $AUD349.99/£189.99/US$219.99/€219.99. I am very grateful to the LEGO Group for providing this set to review ; I might have passed it by otherwise, much to my loss! All opinions are my own.

I suspect that by expecting to be disappointed, I set myself up to be delighted by the lack of disappointing aspects and the inclusion of delightful details.

Are you confused about this rambling about delight and disappointment yet? Read on to see why this set is one of the best demonstrations of what a Technic model should be, learn a few things about space travel more than half a century ago, and convince yourself to give this set good consideration in your budget.

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Gaga with 10334 Retro Radio

BrankotheFather 18+, ICONS, Lego, Review , , , , , ,

Let me be blunt; when I saw images of this set I was entirely uninterested and some famous words of Lord Rambling Brick rang through my ears “If I liked every set LEGO makes, they are not doing their job right.” Although I admire that the principles of radio created by Marconi still underpin much of modern day society, and I remember using devices like this in ‘the olden days’, I just could not feel a connection with this build.

That said, recently, I was given the opportunity to investigate this display model closely courtesy of the LEGO-certified store in Castle Hill (NSW, Australia). Given my utter lack of desire to buy the set, I felt this was a great way to see if I was correct in my assessment.

This set is available from the 1st of June for AU$169.99/£89.99/US$99.99/€99.99, and it contains 906 (!) parts.

As I am writing this, my wife expressed her concern that I may now want to buy one of these radios for myself. What happened? What did this display model do to make me reconsider its merit? Read on to find out.

Let’s be clear: This will not be a thorough review but rather a rapid look at this set.

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42172 LEGO Technic McLaren P1: Unboxing and Build Experience I

ramblingbrick 18+, Lego, Review, technic , , , , , , , ,

In this post, we take a look at the latest in the Ultimate Car Concept Series, 42172 LEGO Technic McLaren P1. We unbox this set, and then examine the first part of the build experience. Along the way, we make some mistakes. How can you prevent making them yourself?

Ever since the very early days of LEGO Technic (Or ‘…sets for expert builders’), there has been a ‘working’ car chassis, bringing us an understanding of how the mechanical aspects of a car might work. Features such as functional steering, gears, pumping cylinders, suspension and a differential. I suspect most of my understanding of how cars work might date back to the early 80s when I first assembled the 8860 Car chassis, and having my Dad and Grandpa explain what was going on over Christmas dinner. It was some time before I attempted to put together a Technic set with greater complexity.

These functional cars have continued to be a feature of the Technic range for over 45 years. The concept received a leg up in 2016 with the introduction of the 42056 Porsche 911 GT3 RS. This marked the beginning of what is now referred to as the LEGO Technic Ultimate Car Concept Series. After tackling marques from the likes of Bugatti, Lamborghini, and Ferrari, the latest set, 42172 McLaren P1, is the fifth in this series.

And I am getting underway with the construction right now. This is my first experience with one of these vehicles. There are many of you out there who have put these sets together before, and I called out for advice on how to approach this the other day and responses had a very consistent theme… “Take Your Time” “Don’t Rush” and “Make sure you get it right!”

Of course, the 24-hour news cycle is as relentless in the world of LEGO Fandom as it is in the rest of the world. And I have a full-time job that sometimes interferes with the LEGO construction. So, some compromises might have been made. And so were mistakes.

My review will be presented in a couple of instalments. In this post, we will cover the packaging and the build experience for the first part of the chassis. (Box 1) The rest of the review will follow in a week or so as, frankly, I need to finish building the thing. We will look at how the instructions and building experience have improved and how I went about troubleshooting some of the errors I made along the way.

Next time, I will finish the build and give you my thoughts on the experience. There is no doubt that spending $AUD699.99 on a LEGO set is a significant investment, and I am sure there are those of you out there who are wondering if this is the kind of set you were looking to get involved with. I am writing from the point of view of someone who has put together a lot of LEGO bricks over the years but has not tackled a major Technic project for some time.

In the meantime, go and pour a cup of coffee, pull up a seat, and read on… Or you can skip over the detailed builder’s journey and skip straight to the halftime report here

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LEGO® DREAMZzz71480: Logan the Mighty Panda

ramblingbrick DREAMZZz, Lego, Review , , , , ,

In the world of LEGO DREAMZzz, wannabee DJ Logan has often been afflicted by a limited ability to dreamcraft. In the first series, he was limited to manifesting in the Dream World as a dreamling type character. In the second series, he is far more likely to appear as a blue version of himself. While his dreamcrafting might be limited, set 71480 Logan the Mighty Panda makes me wonder if this ability is manifest sometime soon.

This set has two minifigures and one raven. It includes 342 pieces. It will be released on August 1 2024 and has a recommended retail price of $AUD49.99/$USD29.99/€29.99/£24.99 This set was provided by the LEGO Group: All opinions are my own.

Let’s take a closer look and see if this set is as much fun as it looks…

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LEGO DREAMZzz 71481: Izzie’s Dream Creatures Set Review

ramblingbrick DREAMZZz, Lego, Review , , , , , , , ,

The first half of the second season of DREAMZzz dropped on Netflix and YouTube a month or so ago, and the next wave of sets will be released on August 1st. I am excited to have been sent these sets by the LEGO Group ahead of their general release. As always, all opinions are my own.

This set will contain minor spoilers for Season 2 regarding the appearances of characters and models in the first 10 episodes.

71481 is the third smallest set of the August 2024 wave of LEGO DREAMZzz sets and one of the more interesting small sets centred on our heroes. It has 328 pieces and a recommended retail price of $AUD59.99/USD39.99/£34.99/€39.99.

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60421 LEGO® City Robot World: Nostalgic callbacks and more!

ramblingbrick City, Lego, Review , , , , , , , , ,
The Giant Unicorn Gundam statue outside the Diver City shopping Mall in Tokyo

Robot World is one of the more intriguing sets in the August (USA)/June (rest of the world) LEGO® City range. On the outside, it appears to be a rollercoaster/amusement arcade built around a Gundam-type statue. I might not have thought such a thing to be probable until I recently found a giant Gundam Statue outside a shopping mall in Tokyo. But, in reality, this set calls back to many aspects of LEGO History, hitting the nostalgic cues for people of a certain age. These people are probably younger than me!

Let’s take a closer look.

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Space: but not as I’m used to. 10422 3in1 Space Shuttle Adventure

BrankotheFather duplo, Lego, Review, space , , , , , , ,

Like me, Branko is a long-standing fan of Space LEGO. Today, he looks at a set that is just a little different from the rest of this year’s space offerings…

Growing up with Space LEGO (not yet labelled Classic Space at this time) and a strong love for Science Fiction, especially of the space-faring kind, I was very excited about LEGO’s space-themed push this year. Many themes this year have some sets tagged with the ‘Space’ corner on the box, somehow tied to this central topic. Duplo is no different with 10422 3in1 Space Shuttle Adventure. The box contains 58 pieces and retails for AU$89.99/£59.99/US$59.99/€64.99, which is more than $1 per piece! Clearly, this set cannot be considered by such an ‘AFOL’ standard; we need to consider things a little differently.

What does Duplo offer to the Space realm? We will explore how this set can be enjoyed by older children; the ones who learned to read in a century that started with ’19’. How does it compare to half-sized LEGO (in comparison to Duplo), and why might you consider this set? We will also consider briefly if this set might be enjoyable by children of a new generation: the ones who are currently counting their age in single digits.

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LEGO® City Presents: The New Adventures of Johnny Thunder and the Jungle Explorers

ramblingbrick City, Lego, Review, Vintage , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This is essentially a review of the 2024 LEGO City Jungle Explorers subtheme. I may get distracted along the way and explore aspects of the Adventurers Theme. Readers are warned of upcoming rabbit holes and narrative cul-de-sacs. Normal service shall resume shortly

From 1998 to 2003, the LEGO® Adventurers theme represented the pinnacle of in house, story-driven themes – complete with heroes, villains, exotic locals and angry locals, the theme felt like a cross between Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park. And while both of those themes were years away from formal licensing, Johnny Thunder, Pippin Reed and Professor Articus Kilroy led the way, travelling through Egypt, the Amazon, and Asia…with a stop by Hollywood along the way.

We have seen recent remakes of Professor Kilroy and Pippin Reed in ICONS and IDEAS sets, but this year, Johnny Thunder returns at the other extreme of price points in a couple of the new LEGO City Jungle Explorers sets. Thanks to the LEGO Group for sending me sets from the LEGO City range to review. Before we dive in too quickly, lets take a look at the ways that Johnny has appeared over the years.

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31151 Creator T. Rex brings LEGO Ideas to Life

ramblingbrick Creator, Jurassic Park, Lego, Review , , , , , , , ,

Dinosaurs are a perennial favourite of the LEGO® Creator range, with no fewer than 18 sets released since 2004, and the latest 31151 T.Rex brings us several alternatives: new brick-built T.Rex, Triceratops and Pteranodon models to put together. But wait. This combination of dinosaurs has appeared in the same box before: in 2017’s 31058 Mighty Dinosaurs – (and its colour-swapped alternatives77940 and 77941), a 174-piece Creator 3in1 set that has been diligently moving off the shelves since 2017. If nothing else, this demonstrates the popularity of Brick-Built dinosaurs, even in the setting of great-looking (but expensive)moulded models from the Jurassic World saga.

This model is part of the latest(June 2024) wave of LEGO Creator 3in1 sets and has 626 pieces. It has a recommended retail price of $AUD89.99/$USD59.99/€59.99/£54.99. Thanks to the LEGO Group for sending this set for an early review.

But perhaps the most intriguing matchup with the options in this set released in recent years is 21320 Dinosaur Fossils – a LEGO Ideas set from 2019 that features skeletons for each of the dinosaurs depicted in this new set. Let’s take a closer look at the models in this set and compare them against the models present in 21320 and what is involved in putting them together.

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Monkie Kid: 80058 Celestial Pagoda [In Depth Review]

ramblingbrick Lego, Monkie Kid, Review , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Series five of the Monkie Kid animated series is about to air somewhere. I haven’t even been able to find evidence of series four going to air in Australia yet. But still, Life will find a way. In this wave, the sets continue to draw inspiration from both the original story ‘The Journey to the West‘ and the animated series, which sets out to tell an ongoing sequel to the original classical novel.

Today, I’d like to take a look at the 80058 Celestial Pagoda – the largest set in the June 2024 Monkie Kid releases

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