LEGO Castle Nocturnia Set Review: Story, Minifigures, and Build

Castle Nocturnia is a key location in both the first and second seasons of LEGO Dreamzzz and, on-screen, demonstrates the typical adherence to physics that might be considered to rival the combined works of Salvador Dali and MC Escher. With six large towers heading off at right angles to each other and an increasingly inconsistent application of the laws of gravity, it is truly a place of fantasy, especially under the guardianship of the ferocious manticore, Phil.

This is all well and good in a story set in the intangible Dream World, but how does this translate to the reality of being constructed out of plastic building bricks and constrained to the standard set of earthly physical laws before being subjected to a collection of younglings at playtime?

There is so much to sum up in this location of remarkable design that compromises will have to be made.

With 1740 pieces, 6 normal minifigures, 4 dreamlings, a red panda and a raven, it has the largest part count seen in a LEGO DREAMZZz set to date. It has a recommended Retail Price of $AUD299.99 / USD199.99 /€199.99/ £169.99

This set was provided by the LEGO GROUP for review purposes. All opinions are my own

As the D2C flagship set of the range, this set has a lot to achieve: let’s take a closer look. If you don’t want the building process spoiled, jump down to my Thoughts, where I shall try to sum up the experience. There might be minor spoilers for the series – in which case, watching through to the end of season 2 will ensure I won’t ruin anything for you. But I hope not many of them will be critical to the plot.

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NEW Build-a-Mini brings us Waking World DREAMZzz Characters: Minifigure Overview

In which we look at the figures in the build a ministations, compare theme with their existing counterparts and speculate over the next colour of spaceman torso. I think the clues are all there…

While LEGO® Dreamzzz sets focus mainly on the Dream World, a significant part of the action takes place in the waking world: the schoolyard, the kids’ homes and other locations around LEGO Brooklyn. It has been a little frustrating, being unable to get the right minifigures for these settings, until now…

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A Brief History of Crossing the Themes Part 3: Time Cruisers

We are celebrating the final half of season 2 of LEGO® DREAMZZz by looking at themes, books and more that made a point of inspiring kids to combine sets of multiple themes in creative play. We have already looked at the 6000 Ideas Book and explored the adventures of Max Timebuster throughout the 1994 catalogue. Today we move on to one of the themes regarded as a spiritual predecessor to DREAMZZz, the 1996-97 Time Cruisers.

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A Brief History of Crossing the Themes Part 2: Introducing Max Timebuster

The Characters in LEGO DREAMZZz travel from Brooklyn, to Fantasy worlds, to Villages to castle, to worlds made entirely out of Candy. But this is not the first time that being able to travel between different LEGO Themes has been used as a framing device for a LEGO narrative. Last time, we looked at the 6000 IDEAs book and followed the adventures of Mary and Bill as they traveled from Town to Space to Castle.

Today, we meet Max Timebuster, a miscreant who jumps between pages of the LEGO Catalog, gathering bits and pieces as he goes.

Joins us for a healthy bit of 90s nostalgia as we continue our survey of ways that LEGO Media have encouraged creative play by having characters Cross the Themes

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A Brief History of Crossing the Themes: Part 1 The Adventures of Bill and Mary/6000 Ideas

In the run-up to the latest installment of the LEGO DREAMZZz animated series dropping on September 6 2024, I thought we might start a small survey of other ways that books, comics and other media have been used to encourage builders to ‘Cross the Themes’

The Storytelling behind LEGO DREAMZZz provides an interesting mechanic that allows fantasy creations to exist in the otherwise mundane world of LEGO City. Many of the sets in the theme exploit this excuse to mash up fantastical ideas with the mundane. The choices provided for each model also make it a little easier for kids to come up with a different final toy in the set.

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LEGO DREAMZzz 71479 Zoey’s Cat Motorcycle Review: Features, Minifigures, Builds

We apologise for interrupting our reviews of recent LEGO DREAMZzz sets. Let’s have a quick look at 71479 Zoey’s Cat Motorcycle. With only 226 pieces and two minifigures, this is the smallest boxed set in the latest wave. It has a recommended retail price of $AUD29.99/£17.99/$USD19.99/€19.99 and went on sale on August 1, 2024. Let’s take a closer look.

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LEGO DREAMZzz 71481: Izzie’s Dream Creatures Set 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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LEGO® DREAMZzz™ Season Two Is Coming – But With a New Threat to the Dream World!

We have seen the latest sets for LEGO® DREAMZZz revealed over the last few weeks, and as the release date for season 2 (May 17) approaches, NEW Concept art, as well as stills from the new series have been revealed. Here is the trailer…

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DREAMZZz Comes in on a Budget in 2024:71471 Mateo’s Off-Road Car review

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.

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EXTRA PIECES Podcast: 2024 Preview – Friends, DREAMZZz, City Space

Jay’s Brick Blog and The Rambling Brick are back with another episode of our collaborative Podcast, EXTRA PIECES. As we close out the year, we’re turning our eyes towards 2024 and the new year and the past week has seen most of the January 2024 releases revealed, and it would appear that there is space for everyone!

You can find the podcast on your favorite Pod Player – or click here

In today’s episode, we cover some of the newly revealed sets coming in the new year: LEGO City, Friends, Creator and DreamZzz as well as explore what the new Space strip that has appeared in sets across themes mean.

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