Today, Branko takes a look at another type of set featuring floral builds: a Disney Botanical set, specifically 43237: Isabela’s Flowerpot. This set was provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes at our request.
The set based on Moana was released a few months after Isabela suggesting that this may be an ongoing series of sets based on Disney characters. Today, we will explore Isabela’s Flowerpot to see what it offers to the ever-expanding field of botanical LEGO sets.
The new LEGO IDEAS set 21353 The Botanical Garden boasts over 3700 pieces, 12 minifigures as well as 4 birds and 4 other animals. But its main claim to fame is the fact that it includes 35 different species of plant. With some interesting recolours already available via the existing Botanicals Collection, I thought it might be worth scouring the images of the set, and matching up the flowers with a list provided by the LEGO Ambassadors Network.
Although… That list might not quite be complete…
This won’t be a comprehensive review, as I don’t actually have the set in my hands, rather a tour in search of the plants matching the description. Once we are done, we will take a quick review of floral elements appearing in minifigure scaled sets over the years.
The new LEGO® Wicked 75682 Ephaba and Glinda Figures set introduces a new type of buildable character—quite a change from the articulated figures that have been seen in the superhero era in recent times. I was quite intrigued by how they might be constructed, and so, when the LEGO Group kindly sent over the sets based on the forthcoming movie Wicked, I decided to start with these. All opinions are my own.
Set 75682 Elphaba and Glinda Figures goes on sale on October 1 2024, priced at $AUD99.99/UDS54.99/£43.99/€54.99. It has 558 pieces.
Aimed at kids aged ten years and up, will these figures revolutionise how character builds are executed, or will it fall flat? Let’s take a closer look. And just how do they fit in with the multitude of different forms of licenced character builds that exist in LEGO form?
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.
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.
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…
There is something about dinosaurs: they capture the imagination of kids from an early age, and rarely let go! We have already taken a look at a most excellent but fairly normal-looking Creator 3in1 T. Rex this year; in the true sense of the DREAMZZz ‘Mash everything up’ philosophy, we have a new dinosaur model in this theme, this time a C. Rex.
Now… just what is a C. Rex? According to the DREAMZZz wiki, it’s a Coopersaurus Rex, and we can expect to see it early on in the next wave of episodes, due to drop on AUGUST 31. In the meantime, let’s take a closer look.
A couple of weeks ago, Branko took a look at the 42174 Koenigsigg Jesko Absolut, in Dark Grey. He wasn’t overly wrapt with it, although it is certainly a functional car. The same car has been released in White as well. Will this colour his opinion?
The Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut will be available in Dark Grey and White! This is another example of a recoloured set, meaning that it is the same as the ‘original’ 42173 Grey Jesko except for the colour.
In this article, we set out to discover how much the colour has really changed between all of LEGO’s recoloured sets, and we will see how this one compares.
When we last looked at the 42172 LEGO® Technic McLaren P1, we successfully unboxed a set for which the unboxing is regarded as an integral experience as the building and completed construction using the first box of construction elements.
While we still have another two boxes to build up, it is apparent that the most intense parts of the building process are now behind us: We have constructed a chassis with the engine, a 7-speed flappy paddle gearbox, rear wheels with independent suspension and a couple of seats. In fact, we are within Coo-ee* of the type of build that we had for a working car set back in the early days of Technic builds, when everything would be laid out on display for the proud builder to show off to their friends, family, and anyone who would stand still for more than 30 seconds in their presence, and foolhardy enough to ask “So, what have you been up to lately?” (For the benefit of non-australians, Coo-wee is what we are taught to call out when we are looking for someonewho might be lost in the bush, but within hearing range.)
In fact, only the front wheels and the steering mechanism are all that currently stand between the end of box one and that endpoint that gave us those visible chassis sets from the early days of Technical Sets [8860 et al.].
There are so many new cars joining the LEGO Technic Range on August 1, be it the super detailed, fully functional 42172 McLaren P1, the affordable Keonigsegg Jesko Absolut or the 42182 Apollo LRV. If you want any of these cars to move, you need to push them along the tabletop yourself. But not all of the new releases rely on a steady hand to propel them from Point A to Point B…
The 42176 Porsche GT4 e-Performance Race Car is motorised and remote-controlled and comes with a brand new Technic Move Hub with a rechargeable battery.
Let’s find out how a dedicated Motor Hub integrate into a remote-controlled race car model?
The set has 843 pieces and will be priced at $AUD249.99/$USD169.99/149.99€/ £169.99. It is available for preorder at LEGO.com com…now. Thanks to the LEGO Group for providing this set for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
Today, Branko takes a look at another of the upcoming Technic Releases for August 1, the Mercedes-Benz G500 Professional Line.
While building this car, I finally got it! I think I now understand why some people so passionately dislike electric cars! As I was building this beast of a vehicle with the intricacies of the transmission, a 6-cylinder engine and several differentials with or without locks, I suddenly realised that if this was an electric vehicle, it would be a lot less entertaining! All these great inventions have been made over the last century to harness the power of controlled explosions (combustion) in a way that allows us to move vehicles how we want. And these inventions are captured in functional detail in this model with lovely mechanisms and gears. Next: cue electric cars; they do away with the need for any of these inventions. They can just provide power to any wheel any way you want it when you want it with no need for mechanical trickery. Where is the fun in that!?! I can imagine to some people, this feels like using a cheat code in the motoring world, not playing a fair game. I do feel sorry for those people for their perceived loss of classic engineering and, frankly, I love the cheat code that EV’s provide, but I digress.
The LEGO Group and Mercedes-Benz have worked closely together to bring us this detailed model of their four-wheel drive G500 Professional line SUV, in New Reddish-Orange*! If you read my review on the boring-grey Koenigsegg Jesko you will not be surprised that I am delighted that this model contains a bit of colour. And a new* colour even!
For me, Technic models do not need to accurately capture the outer appearance of their real counterparts, but in recent years, there has been an increase in attention to the outer detail, and this is no exception. When finished, it is very clear what this car represents, and it’s a vibrant, striking, and big presence. But, as expected with Technic, the fun with the model is the functionality! The car comes with forward- and reverse-gears, 8 cylinder engine, high and low gear, differential between front wheels and between rear wheels and between front-to-rear with the ability to lock front-rear and rear left-right (if you’re confused just keep reading after the break). All five doors can open and have a working door latch, there is an opening roof window, cargo trunk, working suspension and a spare wheel.
This set is available from the 1st of August 2024 for AU$ 399.99/£219.99/$249.99/€249.99 (affiliate link) and is available to pre-order now. It contains 2891 pieces, which is always an odd statistic with Technic sets with a large portion attributed to pins (over 700 in this set). The set was provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes, but all opinions are my own.
This is a great set. Yes, that’s a period. I’m not really into cars, or Technic all that much but this is just an impressive set that provides a great balance between looks and functionality. It does come with hefty price tag so keep reading if you want to find out if this is a set for you. Or if you want to see a simple demonstration of the effect of differential lock.
