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Knew most of those buildings would be ridiculously overpriced. Aquarium was always of interest, and at least it's more affordable than the others. Fingers crossed that it doesn't have any issues making the cut. I do wonder how many AFOLs would go crazy for the big complicated buildings. Science Adventures also looks like a fun small set but I think it's going to get steamrolled in the competition.

Oh no, I think that was the exact reason why they didn't advertise it; if you had known about the event, you would've put off your purchases and now they got your money but without the perks. And although a few places had predicted that the sale would be this week (and we didn't even get that estimate until a few weeks ago, so most of us were just assuming it would be sometime in October) there was no official conformation that it was happening until today... so yeah not advertised very well. I personally did put off getting the World Map set until today, and I've been waiting a couple of months now to grab that set... In general, Lego does a Double VIP promotion in October and April, although the exact times and lengths of the promotion vary from year to year. They sometimes do Double VIP for Black Friday too... or more specifically, VIPs get deals the week before Black Friday, and by the time the actual sales week happens all the good stuff is sold out. They usually have some decent gifts with purchase around that time of year too. The risky part is just because of worldwide supply chain disruptions, highly desired sales are selling out quickly, so if you risk waiting for a better deal then the item might not actually be available anymore when the time comes. Th pros and cons of trying to take advantage of LEGO deals, heh...

So this is the end of my slog of prepared reviews to post. I got a plethora of new sets from the Summer release, so I’ll probably look into reviewing those in the coming days, but there’ll be more time needed so it won’t be like I’m spamming the blogs too much. Not that I think anybody’s really noticed or worried about that, anyway; it is kind of interesting that I used to gripe about all sorts of stuff here and now I mainly just stop by to post set reviews. I do miss the days when there was a ton of content in the blogs, but alas times are changing and people are moving to other social networks. And I’m just as guilty of it, especially because I’ve been taking these mini blog reviews and reposting them on BrickSet. I haven’t posted reviews on BrickSet in 8 years and they have a new system and everything. . . and yet I can skirt moderation because I posted so many CMF reviews (that were marked as helpful) there 8 years ago that I’m listed as a trusted reviewer. I still plan to do the big in-depth reviews on BZPower when I have the chance. . . which I ended up doing for the Ninjago Hydro Bounty last week. But I also like to give quick snippits on other sets without going the full mile I do for a front page review. . . and honestly nobody is seeing them here in my blog, but they might reach an interested audience on BrickSet, who’s inventory of sets remains one of the best on the web. (Their opinionated member base in news comments. . . that’s a different story.) Too bad they don’t seem to allow embedded Instagram photos, which is where I’m posting most of my picts for now. Of course, here’s the main event… 265 pieces, $29.99 More photos on (where else?) Instagram! This was not a scene I was expecting to be made into a set. But given that Korg and Miek don’t really show up a whole lot of places, so it’s hard to find a set for them to fit in. Something from Ragnarok, like the jail cells or rainbow bridge battle? Boring or already done in a previous set. They showed up in the final battle of Endgame but were basically just cameos, so if you’re going to get them in a set, might as well be in the one scene they were solely featured in. And so thus we get Thor’s messy room, also known as “it doesn’t look that bad compared to my place, heck you can even see the floor in places!” First the figs. You get three characters that are all exclusive to this set: Bro Thor, Korg, and Miek. Bro Thor / Fat Thor shows him without a shirt and with a big belly, whose printing overlaps onto the hips (although the coloring isn’t great.) It’s about the best you can do to showcase a chubby stomach in printed form; I would be tempted to suggest that they’d actually make an additional molded piece to create a 3D belly, like the fat-suit that Chris Hemsworth had to actually wear. . . but I guess that would be going a bit far for a humanoid minifig. The head and hairpiece are reused from the other Thor figs in sets this year. Next up is Korg, who is wearing a festive tan skirt with his rocky abbs visible beneath it. I think the headphones he comes with are supposed to be because he’s a gamer now. His rocky hair piece is exclusive, I believe, and does a good job of recreating this character as a fig. Miek was a bit more abstract of a character, so he only gets a printed minifig head atop a few studs. The flower studs give him some added texture, but he remains quite simple. The main room is pretty cluttered for a LEGO model but has a lot of fun details hidden around it. Pizza boxes litter the house, you have stuff like a frying pan, a whip, a pitch fork, an ore, and a shovel stashed on the walls. There are seem to be two boat models; one on the shelf above the couch and one above the fireplace. (Maybe they’re supposed to resemble something else, but I see them as mini sail boats.) Strangely, there’s a barrel next to the fireplace that contains trans yellow tiles. This is obviously supposed to be ale, but I find it kind of weird that alcohol is included in a LEGO set in such a way. Maybe officially it’s labeled as lemonade? The couch is the most interesting build of the bunch, featuring a few SNOT techniques to create the cushions. And then you have a lot of detailed stickers hidden around the model. The TV (nicely placed at an angle) showcases the video game, where Korg seems to be a playable character due-wielding Stormbreaker and Mjolnir. Noobmaster is making some comments on the side, and you even see the stud score at the top of the screen, representing many LEGO video games, even if that’s not exactly what they were playing in the scene, heh. (It was Fortnight, right? I dunno, don’t really have the time or budget for games like that.) I don’t know if the number for the score means anything, it’s too long for the set number anyway. A newspaper clipping is included talking about the blip. . . obviously New Asgard is old school if they’re still using print newspaper. Somebody needs to build them a website. The best sticker is the photo of Thor, Valkyrie, Korg, and Miek attached to the wall, a nice memento of their previous adventures. Once you’ve removed all the clutter, the room itself is extremely basic. The walls use a mixture of different textured bricks to give it a rustic look, and there’s a little stove in the corner. A fun bit of the design is cookie tiles and pizza slices are placed on the floor under other items like the couch, showing just how messy Thor has let his place become. The exterior looks remarkably plain, but the door does open to let you in, even if the ale barrel blocks you from entering too far in. There’s also a small signpost for New Asgard that’s supposed to be set up outside the room. (Full disclosure; in the photos you may notice I’m missing one of the dark tan windowsill pieces. It felt to the carpet while I was building, my dark tan carpet that it blends into too well, and for the life of me I cannot tell where it bounced off to. So, alas, I moved forward without it.) I think the minifigures are the main draw to this set, and the other pieces don’t necessarily excite me. There are a few fun sand green elements in the couch, and the walls used a lot of SNOT and masonry bricks which could be useful. Oh, plus the angled door frame is here, which isn’t new but I still believe it’s uncommon. The printed pizza tiles and game controllers are also a nice touch. I could’ve gone without the treasure chest however; I’m not a fan of getting the bottom half but not the top half. It’s a solid display piece that captures a lot of nice details from the movie with some easter eggs hidden around. The characters are great, but there’s a pretty big lack of action features here, so not really a set for playability. I feel this is probably aimed to an older audience who want to collect the figs, but I’m sure any Avengers / Thor fans will appreciate this set for what it is. And honestly, at $29.99, it’s on the cheaper end of things too. I wouldn’t say that this is the set to represent the EndGame movie, but it will do a good job of supplementing your Avenger collection. (And besides, we all needed an Korg fig even if we haven’t admitted it to ourselves yet.)

593 pieces, $49.99 More Instagram photos here!! I don’t mind that this is not called the Slave 1, but I do have to admit that this ship has been recreated so many times that it’s fairly ridiculous. Heck, I even made a custom Bionicle build of this ship already. And yet, I don’t have any copies of the actual model, so when I found this for sale at Costco I just impulsively bought it. Now I can at least add another classic Star Wars ship to my display. The two figs are Mando and Boba. Both are highly detailed (although that didn’t come across in my photos… everybody keeps complaining when I use flash or shine lights on my figs when taking photos, but when I try a more natural light setting the end results are too dull and blurry and photo editing can’t help. Sorry, mini rant aside, sorry for the lousy photo quality.) In fact, Boba has almost too much detailed printing everywhere. (I did forget the visor, whoops.) While Mando has some fancy armor printing on his shoulders, because I guess he managed to level up. There’s also a sticker of a Gamorrean in carbonite. The scale of this ship feels like it is way down compared to other variations, but it’s far more affordable so I can’t complain too much. And still, I think the design and coloring fits the shape of the original nicely. I am very impressed with the angled design of the “nose” or whatever, and especially the use of the wedge plates to hide the edge of the angle; the flow works so incredibly well there! Fantastic building techniques. The dark red bits are a bit less elegant, but they include a new wedge piece]. (Well, not brand new, apparently it was used in the Slave 1 of 2019, but it’s new to me.) The curved dark green pieces at the wing joints are also new and flow together nicely. I was also surprised at the use of stickers on the rounded nose elements; I don’t know if I’ve seen those with stickers before, but they work nicely. The cockpit also includes seating for a fig facing both directions; I know some of the larger sets allow the seat to flip around when you rotate it, which isn’t possible here, so we get a lo-tech version instead. Really, the only part of the ship I’m disappointed with is the wings, which are kind of sparse with halfhearted greeble. How could they have been improved… I don’t know, those wings have always looked iffy on the sets. A secondary model is supposed to be some sort of support hovercraft. It’s generally kind of bland, until you realize that it doubles as a stand to hold the starship upright. It’s a simple design but I’m impressed by how well it works. A nice touch, making it a mild play feature but also a usable stand. Very nice. The biggest factor for this set is probably the fact that it’s a scaled down model of a starship that has appeared quite often. And I’m sure many adults won’t want to downgrade to this, because I don’t think it necessarily brings anything particularly new to the table in terms of the ship’s design. But I’ve never bought any of the other models, and the scale works for the X-Wing fighters I already have on display, so I like it. Plus, it’s a lower priced model for kids who are just starting their Star Wars collection, and the figs are crazy detailed. A decent set; maybe not for everybody, but worthwhile to plenty all the same.

506 pieces, $39.99 More photos on Instagram. Ninjago always has to do dragons, and I’ve appreciated how they’ve continued to crank out various fun designs over the years. The Jungle Dragon brings on a slightly revamped design but with a lot of teal, so what’s not to love? Also featuring the new Island / Jungle theme, so a new round of characters! You get four figs: Jungle Lloyd, Jungle Zane, PoulErik, and Thunder Keeper. The two islanders share the same torso design, with grass woven armor and lavender skin. Thunder Keeper has a brilliant looking mask, while PoulEric has two stacked heads, which is a fun concept. The new Ninja outfits include some new rugged textures, and Lloyd shows off his new hairpiece. Zane also has a little sailboat mini-build, keeping with the Ninja boat designs for the theme. It’s compact but still captures the same essence as the larger catamarans. The most interesting part of the build is that the dragon comes with a angled bend in the middle of its back, giving it an odd bent appearance that makes posing it a bit interesting. This also means that the legs, which are fairly short and lack elbow joints (per usual), don’t have a lot of range of motion; they mostly need to be extended all the way down to keep the dragon’s lowered belly off the ground. I’m not entirely thrilled with the design. On one hand, it gives the dragon a somewhat more canine and playful appearance, but I have not been happy with the posability of the whole thing. I don’t know the best ways to fix it either; the bend in the body could be on a joint, but the design is built around a rigid structure and adding another joint might be too weak to hold it together during play. The tail design is again loosely connected via technic axles, so it flops back and forth (which again makes it kind of dog-like.) The wings are also very bare-bones and difficult to pose well. The head makes good use of the new mold elements, and the attachment for the jaw does allow for the tongue to hang out, which just solidified the dog-ness of this dragon. I’m not super impressed with the build, to be honest. And yet, for all that it’s lacking, this dragon has character!. The head is very expressive, the few poses it can be in makes it look more playful and less intimidating than previous dragons, and the teal and gold color scheme works extremely well. So, in the end, I have to say that this dragon is indeed worthwhile. Plus, lots of teal pieces and some nice figs (including an exclusive Zane) meant that it was a must buy for me.

340 pieces, $24.99 More photos on Instagram. Ah, BrickHeadz, they’re still around and still remaking licensed characters. I generally don’t pick these up for the characters anymore and mainly get them for the pieces. But my roommate is a fan of the series so I got it as a birthday gift. But as I’ve discovered, while he likes displaying Lego, he doesn’t actually build with it, so buying him a new set just means he stashes the box away untouched. So I prebuilt these, and decided to take some picts and talk about them before wrapping them up. (If he asks, I’ll just say that Lego sometimes prebuilds the sets in the box. I legitimately made that joke to another coworker once when I gave him a blind bag where I’d built the mini set inside ahead of time… and he believed me for months before somebody spilled that I was pulling his leg. Haha, fun times in the office.) Alas, by the time I got to editing the photos the set had already been wrapped, so I’m stuck with a few blurry ones. If you look at it cross-eyed then everything else will turn blurry to match and they won’t look out of place; problem solved. Scrooge himself is a standard BrickHeadz design. He comes with his blue jacket with red highlights, and a printed brick on the front. He wears a neat top hat and includes a beak and some additional tiles and slopes to represent his feathers. Oh, and his has tiles to stand in as his glasses. Fun stuff. (I almost made a Scrooge BrickHeadz as a convention trophy a few years ago but instead opted for Darkwing Duck. I wonder how long before he appears as a BrickHeadz…?) One of the more unusual bits is the wedge plates used as his flipper duck feet, which seems a bit awkward to me, like his legs are sprawling out in an odd direction. But I guess they’ve used it for the other duck BrickHeadz before, so might as well keep it consistent. Scrooge has two tiles to showcase his shoes, making it a bit different. The triplets are all the exact same designs but with recolors… which I guess is how they appeared in the original show. (I very much appreciated that the new show took the time to give them each distinct personalities. The original show was a bit before my time and so wasn’t my go-to nostalgic childhood show, but when I rewatched some episodes and the three kids were basically interchangeable, it kind of annoyed me.) Anyway, they use the smaller 3x3 design with cool baseball cap designs and some rounded tiles on their face to replicate the designs used on Scrooge. They use the wedge plates as feet too, and it’s even more jarring at this scale. Also… the back of their heads are double plated, with a full white plate and then another layer of tiles. To me this makes the back of their head stuck out just a bit too far, and I think one layer of tiles would’ve sufficed. And there’s plenty of connections to allow for that, so the additional plate wasn’t necessary for stability. Scrooge also uses the double plate width on the back of his neck, but for his size it’s not as noticeable. Honestly, BrickHeadz designs generally don’t get too impressive, but these four characters are easily recognizable so I think the process worked for them. And lots of nice extra pieces too, and it was fun to have the colorful triplets included instead of just Scrooge. If you’re a fan of the show, I think they’re worthwhile. (I’ll have to update you on my roommate’s reaction; luckily he doesn’t read this blog [like everybody else in existence, to be sure] so he won’t have the surprise spoiled here.)

276 pieces, $29.99 More pictures on Instagram Remember when the only Mandalorian set was the super expensive ship with baby Yoda that sold out in presales? Or something like that; basically, it was costly to get. Welp, now Mando and The Child appear in a small affordable set which represents everybody’s favorite sandy planet from the series. It’s an interesting choice but it works. The figs alone are probably worth the cost of the set. Mando has a lot of his fancy Mandalorian printing going on, although I guess he’s missing some of his fancier armor that other figs have printed on. Baby Yoda is the same, but this is a far cheaper way to get the baby fig. And there’s a Tusken Raider, who did appear in the show, so I guess that’s plot relevant! You get three mini builds; a speeder, a bolt launcher, and a small hut. The speeder has some nice greeble on it and allows for some interesting angles. Star Wars does enough speeders that I don’t know anymore how good or bad this one is in comparison. It works, I guess. The catapult thing kind of resembles the one used in the show; it also has some clip hinges that allow for some different angles to put together the “bow” and launch the spring loaded missile. The hut might be my favorite part, because it has a rounded design to create half of a rounded shape. Unfortunately there’s no easy way to continue it all the way around and make a full hut, but I think it works well for the small scale. The builds are decent but not super impressive; luckily they’re secondary to the figs, which are great, and they still add some play value. Did I pick this set up entirely to get the Mandalorian and Child for cheap? Absolutely. But the other pieces included are welcomed, so it wasn’t a blatant rip-off.

283 pieces, $29.99 More photos on Instagram The Tournament of Elements season was one of my favorite of the Ninjago show, so it’s cool to see a legacy set recreating scenes from it. Of course, the actual building isn’t super impressive; it’s a similar angled interior design that we’ve seen in other cheap Ninjago sets before, with the benefit of being two levels to allow for some vertical action. There’s fun placement of the various jade blades (including some hidden inside the white vases) as well as a compartment for the McGuffin book. Simple, but it works for the price, so I’ll take it. The minifigures are the obvious draw to the set, as you get a whopping 7 of them, including three brand new Elemental Masters for the first time. Obviously you need some of the Ninjas; Kai and Jay appear in their tournament outfits that are used across the Legacy theme. The chase fig in this set is Golden Lloyd, one of six golden figs placed throughout the Legacy sets that you’ll need to buy all of to form the full team. (I know I’m hooked on it, doesn’t mean I don’t recognize the marketing ploy.) In particular, this set had Lloyd’s new headgear piece from the Jungle sets, but it came out three months before those sets. Fun designs. You also get a Spinjitzu tornado and a handle to spin it around, a fun function to include in these sets. Also Eyezor makes an appearance as a filler baddie. The main draw are the three Elemental Masters: Bolobo, Gravis, and Jacob. Bolobo’s main feature is his beard, but he has a bare torso with some tattoos printed on him, and carries his plant staff. Gravis has a simple red outfit and turban, and his gravity powers are represented using purple dishes. Jacob, meanwhile, has a snazzy teal suit and his sonic guitar. Together, they help fill out most of the cast of Elemental Masters. (We’re still missing Chamille though.) As a build, this isn’t the most impressive set. But man is it packed with figs, so I think it is very much worth it. And the figs are varied enough that even non-Ninjago fans can appreciate them. Also like the green weapons pack included here. So very worthwhile one to pick up.

So back in January this year, I was getting into the groove to start doing mini blog set reviews again. I had figured out the best way to deal with the pictures; cover shots saved on BZP, the rest linked to on Instagram, ext. Whole deal figured out, just needed to build, photograph (with mixed results, to be honest), and write. But then, my computer of 7 years crashed. After two months of trying to fix it with mixed results, I got a brand-new computer, and then I was busy setting up stuff on it, which meant reinstalling software, transferring files, ext. Well, then after almost exactly a month, that went down. Since it was brand new it was still under warranty so I was able to ship it off and have them fix it, but it was a graphics card issue, and of course graphics cards are in short supply thanks to stupid bitcoin mining stuff, so that was another two months wait before I was able to get my computer back up. (Which involved trying to organize a quick group mosaic organized without Photoshop to help me out, still glad we got it done in time for BrickFair.) This essentially shut me down from doing these mini reviews (and even a front page review too). I’ve still collected sets and taken pictures, so now it’s time to do a rapid fire posting of various opinion pieces of sets from 2021! Anyway, boring buildup explanation aside, onto my review ramblings!! 148 Pieces, $19.99 Instagram Photos This was one of the first sets I got at the beginning of the year. Honestly, I mostly got it for the pieces, but it has a solid build as well. Farming has been a Lego subtheme for a long time; I think even some of the pre-plastic Lego toys were tractors. (There was even an article about that recently.) Although it’s not quite as prevalent as Police or Firefighters, it’s a fun theme to revisit. (And better to have more farmers than a Lego City Police State.) You get three characters; the farmer, his daughter, and a bunny. Both figs reuse generic overall torsos, but it’s fitting here so I’ll allow it. The bunny is also fairly uncommon, and this is one of the cheapest sets it’s in. Plus, you get some carrots, an apple, and a pumpkin, so some neat food items. In terms of actual pieces, this set had a few new ones that caught my eye, particularly the 2x2x2 brick element with ridges on the side. The ridges match with the standard modified brick, but they’re on all four sides so it would work well in corners, and the 2 plate height allows for some new versatility. You get four of these pieces in black (used in the tractor’s interior) and four in tan (to represent hay) so that’s a good supply of a new element in a fairly affordable set. There also the new technic brick element, which I’m sure will have its uses. It’s mostly remarkable here because this is the first set it appeared in. The big back tires are also rare, only appearing in a large technic set. I guess the new 2x6x1 bracket in black was also rare, and the bucket element appears to be exclusive too. Like I said, a bunch of fun pieces, especially for a City set. The tractor itself is a satisfying build. The back area has some blue detailing in the interior, but the outside shell is predominantly red. The front loader has a simple but effective mechanism to scoop up stuff. There’s even a trailer hitch on the back to hook up more stuff. And the shaping makes it quite distinctive with a good flow using the curved slopes and arches. It’s a fun little set. I got it for the parts but still haven’t taken it apart yet, heh. Worthwhile for a City vehicle.

Honestly, this was one (of many) problems I had with the Hordika back in the day. (The main one being that the sets looked ugly, and the story saying that they're supposed to look ugly didn't help anything.) To me, the Hordika did not have any clear animals they were based on. They were essentially recolored builds with different tools and masks, but the masks did not appear to be any particular animal. Yes, I always got rhino vibes from Nuju and reptilian vibes from Nokama and Matau, but it was all just a little too vague for my tastes. And that's not to say Lego couldn't have done better, because in later years THEY DID. The Barraki were not direct animal replicas, but they had enough design features that it was clearly apparent that Carapar was a crab, Kalmah was a squid, Takadox was a mantis, ext. Of course, in 2005 they hadn't got past the clone builds, but then you could look to the third wave of Hero Factory heroes with the animal motifs. The basic designs of each didn't change, but they had styled weapons that sorta matched their animals, and then they had very details helmets immediately made it clear what animal they were based on. The Hordika could've benefited from either of these routes. I'm sure it was a case that the sets were designed long before the story, so maybe that's where the biggest disconnect is. (Saying they're based on animals when the original designs were just sort of nonspecific "mutations"). But they gave us lackluster sets and kind of an annoying theme to explain them. 2005 was a lousy year. (Although as much as I dislike Web of Shadows, I do have to admit that the animation had finally improved on the third movie.) Obviously, these are my opinions, which are mine, and I know plenty of people would disagree with that, but whatevs.

10 - Vohtarak and 5 - Makuta of the Melding look pretty cool, but I think I have to vote for 3 - Le-Koro Platform for the sheer nostalgia.

Back at BrickFair 2011 we had this crazy thing where we build a giant tower out of spare play bricks during one of the drinking nights. It was a crazy and memorable project from some of the earlier convention years (for me at least) so I wanted to recreate it as a MOC for this contest. Of course, the tower itself would be kind of a bland build, so I decided to also incorporate the tradition of PBZP, which was back when people would make MOCs of a bunch of members. I didn't get the whole group, but I got the lot who I'm still (kind of) in touch with today. And of course these are weird takes on their usernames and not actual depictions of them in person, because they are all really cool people and I couldn't possibly do them justice otherwise!! The Tower: Even with the system lettering and base, this still passes the technic ratio for BBC Contests because this thing is super dense with thin liftarms. It's a bit more colorful than the actual tower (which was made using a lot of white and brown bricks) and of course the lettering is different. But I chose some artistic deviations to get the same feel for it across. (I also forgot we added all sorts of weird antennas to the sides so those the flex wires were added in to mix up the texture.) Emperor Whenua: Always the regal type, so I gave him a crown and a fluffy scarf. I decided to keep with the Turaga route and made him hunchback but also super buff. Chocolate Frogs: He wanted a green outfit, so I gave him a lime coat. But more importantly, his brick-badge has a brown frog on it! Nuju Metru: He was always the most dapper of us all, so I tried to give him a fancy suit and jacket, almost it's not quite as flush as I'd like it. Had to give him the bowtie tho. Bionicle Raptor: I was trying to make him into an actual dinosaur, but then he ended up more like a really buff but wingless dragon. Me: Um, I tried to give him headphones and a green color scheme. Anyway, that's what I have for a MOC. Not exactly the most fabulous MOCs ever but I like how the scene has come together. And now to send it to BrickFair to be displayed 10 years after the fact!

Heh, in case it wasn't obvious, this IS a set; this was made using only pieces from the giant World Map set, so you could buy that one now (if you could find it) and do this kind of alt-build yourself. As cool as this is, I'm a little jealous that they beat me to a Mata-Nui design because it was something I totally wanted to do with this set already. XD

Okay, that was interesting, and fun to hear from a guy who was legitimately a fan. (Although there were a few parts where he was confused about something and I was like "oh I know where that's from..." so I dunno what that says about me, heh.) MNOLG music was really great, and I still have one of the tracks as a ringtone. Excited to hear that there might be a remix of it later this summer. Fun listen.

Okay, you want it by year...? 2001: Gali Mata 2002: Kohrok 2003: Nuhvok Kal 2004: Matau Metru 2005: Matau Hordika 2006: Thok 2007: Mantax 2008: Pohatu Phantoka 2009: Vorox 2010: Um... I think it might've been Gresh Stars 2015: Pohatu, Master of Stone 2006: Four Way Tie! Gali, Master of Water, Lewa, Master of Air, Akida, Creature of Water, Uxar, Creature of Air

But of course Andrew got Ninjago City Gardens to build.

Hehehe, just realized Andrew mixed up his Looney Toons with Tiny Toons and said Babs Bunny instead of Lola Bunny. IMO this looks like a series I can mostly pass on. It has the same issues as the Simpsons waves; very custom head molds and very generic torso prints for the most part. There are a few elements that I'm interested in (cheese printed cheese slopes!!) but I'm not a big enough Looney Tunes fan to go all in. Honestly would not have predicted this as a wave of figs, but I guess they could do worse.

Yeah, so this isn't quite a standard review, but rather a discussion about the theme and the TV series. I actually fell behind on the Ninjago TV series and recently caught up with it on Netflix. The shorter episodes were a bit off-putting, but they still tell a decent story, with the occasional break to focus purely on side characters. (And the fact that sometimes they switch to a more anime-like animation style was neat too.) The fact that the last season heavily focused on Cole was bittersweet after the passing of his voice actor, Kirby Morrow. For the character, I liked how he was able to connect to his mother's past as another Earth elemental, some of the scenes were pretty moving. And even so, plenty of the other characters got their chances to shine, which is not something all seasons of the show have been able to pull off. And yes, the action and humor is generally aimed for a younger audience so it would be mild for most adults, but I enjoyed how they incorporated all the sets and characters (and annoyed at some of the characters and locations that didn't get properly featured in sets. That fancy city had potential.) The best joke was also their take on the LotR quote with "You shall not... be granted permission to transverse beyond this point." More photos on Instagram Now, for the sets, there was the whole concept this year of combining them into larger portions to make a large board game. I ended up getting 71717 Journey to the Skull Dungeons, 71721 Skull Sorcerer's Dragon, and 71722 Skull Sorcerer's Dungeons. Journey and Dungeons have the bigger landscape pieces that look like they fit together the best (kinda reminds me of the Helms Deep set and then the wall extension set that were clearly made to go together.) Journey on it's own is lackluster, but it still provides a more substantial landscape than in the Dragon set. (And the Dragon set has better landscapes than the other sets, from the looks of it.) Still, the adjustable pathways are a bit of a mess when you try to connect them all, and I wasn't really able to get all the loops properly connected. It is nice to have a full set of the Ninja; always cool to see the team all together. And, of course, I tried to pair up all the dragons I had built with the Skull Dragon to show off it's massive size. Anyway, this was a fun theme for Ninjago and I think the theme is still doing alright. A new mech and dragon every year is fine with me, especially as the designs keep changing and bringing something new to the table. And the show still seems to be doing well; not bogged down too much in the story of previous years but still alluding to it when appropriate. (Although it is a bit annoying when they're falling and in trouble and we forget that a few years ago they had Airjitzu that they could use to fly). I look forward to see where they're going with the theme next.

And now to move onto the biggest set of the themes... More photos on Instagram: The build process Set highlights and action features The minifigures 71722 Skull Sorcerer's Dungeons is $99.99 and has 1171 pieces. And it is good. Ninjago has done a bunch of big based before, but something about this one feels like more of the adventurer big sets from the late 90s... y'know, the ones I never was able to buy but admired a lot in the magazines. Part of this has to do with the game board setup, where you have paths leading up and around the temple, giving it more of a sense of adventure than a standard building or temple. The rocky structure works out nicely, but the detailed skull design that fits atop it really draws the eyes, and the underlying orange plates as lava add to the environmental feel. On the main level, you have a campfire on one side of the skull and a weapons cache on the other. Meanwhile, on the back side of the mountain you have the Skull Sorcerer's office, complete with some nice decorations and a portrait of him before he got all skull-faced. The right path is pretty meager and comparable to the paths seen in some of the smaller sets, although it features a mini stone bridge. The left path has a more substantial bridge and uses a neat trick to extend the ladder up towards the tower without actually connecting to it. To add to the game play, there are also hidden hearts and weapons along the paths. (I tried to look up the rules for the board game but it's so generic that I think you're better off customizing them yourself.) There are a couple of fun action features squeezed into the landscape too. If you push the pathway beneath the skull's mouth, you can open the doorway to one of the swords. (This is a fun feature that has been utilized a few times before, like in one of the Elves castles, but it's still a good one.) You also have a lever you can pull back on the top to send back the spikes and reveal the other sword. Meanwhile, if you turn the tower on the left, you activate all sorts of sequences. It causes blades to spin on the bridge and raises / lowers the cage on the far right. (The cage, meanwhile, is the exact same design from the cheaper set.) The most ambitious part, however, is the paths leading up to the skull, which the sequence causes to rise and fall. The latter one does have a tendency to get stuck so it's not quite as fluid as I would've liked, but it's impressive. And the main tower uses a rubber piece to lock the turns, so you don't have a lot of slack running through the full thing. You get a full selection of figs to play with too. Lloyd, Zane, and Cole fill out the Ninja roster (the other half of the team is in the skeleton dragon set.) You also get the troll Munce character and the goblin Ginkle character, who turn out to be Ninja allies in the show. The black Skeleton warrior is not tho, but he's generic so it's okay to hate him. The Skull Sorcerer is nicely detailed, and the same as he was in the dragon set. Unique to this set is Vania, who has her own unique color scheme that really stands out in the dungeons. Also two game play stands and a dice spinner. As a play set, I think this might be one of the better Ninjago sets from the whole theme. The concept of tying all the sets together as a board-game really adds to their play value, and I could see younger kids spending a lot of time with this set with all the adventures it offers. From a purely display angle, it's not the most picturesque with some of the flimsy paths, but the skull design certainly holds its own. It makes a worthwhile set for any Ninjago fan... s'long as they can afford it, because it is on the pricey side.

So I've been forced to relearn how to deal with images in BZP blogs. (Yeah, this isn't the highest traffic place around anymore, but how else am I supposed to scream my thoughts out into the void??) Flickr restructured and became unusable for a large quantity of images, and Brickshelf is another older platform that I just don't use that much anymore. I was trying to go for the Instagram route for photos of sets to do quick reviews on, but then embedding broke on BZP (I don't know which side is responsible, but knowing the issues with the forum's server I bet it's on our side.) But, lo and behold, we have that whole gallery thing that I've never utilized. And sooooo... went and spammed a bunch of review pictures there and updated all my mini reviews from the last couple of years. I'll still upload full galleries to Instagram but I'll at least have some visuals to post here. And I still have some Ninjago stuff to cover from last year before I start focusing on the new sets. So without further ado... More photos and videos on Instagram, obviously. The Skull Sorcerer's Dragon, AKA Skeleton Dragon, goes for $79.99 USD and has 1016 pieces. I'm reluctant to call it the largest Ninjago dragon ever (it probably ranks up there) but it's the largest I've owned so far, so it's still quite impressive. The wings are the biggest stand out for me; they are cloth and have a really awesome printing to them, even as they take up a TON of space. The dragon is mainly white with dark grey along its spine and trans bright green highlights. The torso is impressive with it's skeletal rib designs, and guess what, it also has a Tridax pod built in! If you push a lever on the dragon's back, the ribs pop opened and the trans green boulder can be dropped. The head tops it off with an impressive spikey design. Of course, the dragon has its faults, and the biggest one is possibility. While the hind legs have the standard motions you'd expect from a Ninjago dragon, the front legs are locked at the shoulders, forcing it to remain in the same forward stance at all times. (It has elbows to allow it to raise itself up and down a bit, but I think too much mobility is lost without the shoulders.) As such, the dragon only really looks good in one pose, and trying to adjust that just looks awkward. And it doesn't help that the front legs also tend to hide the cooler rib designs of the torso. I also found the swinging tail to be quite annoying after a while; it's hard to pose in a position that is not wrapping back around the dragon's body. Good as a play feature, yes, bad for posing. Of course, keeping with the game-board-like designs of all these Ninjago Master of the Mountain sets, this one has some landscape bits, but they are rather weak. You have a turntable that can act as a switch to swing them to three different islands in the laval. One of those islands also has a statue that's built on a neat little action feature; press down slightly on the game stand that the Ninja is supposed to land on, and the statue falls on top of them. It also comes with two of the game stands with heath hearts, which are in most of this theme's sets, as well as the dice-spinner. The figs are decent, but again are secondary to the main dragon. You get Kai, Jay, and Nya in their new armor. (Fun fact, the other half of the Ninjas come in the Skull Sorcerer's Dungeon, so if you get both of those sets then you get a full team of ninja!) The new armor and helmets are interesting, and while Nya and Jay have neat torso designs, Kai's feels a bit bland with just a giant emblem. Printed shields are a plus tho. On the bad guy's side, you have the Skull Sorcerer himself, with a detailed robe and a fancy special mask (built into the hat tho, sorry). The two black skeletons are identical and a bit generic, but hey it can help build up your skeleton army. In the end, I'm not quite sure if this is the most worthwhile set. The dragon is massive and detailed but is not exactly the best to display with it's lack of posability. (I might remove the front legs entirely and make it a Wyvern, but then it would be far too front heavy.) The figs are great, the landscape is meh, and the pieces are actually pretty good, with a lot of fun whites. (Not a while lot of new stuff that I could see.) A fitting dragon for sure. Anyway, more Ninjago stuff to come. Allow me to continue to scream into the void.

I got a handful of Ninjago sets this last month, so I'll start out the new year by looking at some of the Ninjago "Master of the Mountain" sets from last year! First up: The Spinjitzu Burst spinner packs. More photos and videos on Instagram In case it wasn't obvious, I'm a sucker for exclusive Ninjago figs, and the various spinner packs are always enticing for their new figs, even if they are generally lackluster in the builds. This batch is another spinner you set off by slamming a lever, not unlike the Spinjitzu Slam sets from 2019. Unfortunately, only three were released, so you only get Cole, Kai, and Lloyd. This irks me, because as a completionist, I am now left without Jay, Zane, or Nya. (And like the Arcade packs only came with Jay, Kai, and Lloyd, and last year's Spinjitzu slam only featured Lloyd, Kai, Zane, and Jay. Nya seems to get left out of all of these packs.) (Plus I just caught up on the show, and only Cole actually does the Spinjitzu Slam, so what are Kai and Lloyd trying to do here??) The figs themselves are actually pretty neat, with elemental energy torso designs and new head prints. They also come with rounded straw hats, and when I got a red and black hat out of Cole and Kai, I was hopeful for a new green variant for Lloyd, but alas he only gets a boring silver hat that doesn't really match with his scheme at all. The spinners themselves are new. The central bit has a stud connection for the ninjas and then bar attachments on four sides, so maybe reusable. The various fins are crystalline and come in some neat colors, but the problem is they're only connection point is a bar clip... and I'm not sure how secure it would be in different bar settings. When you rubber band them together, they hold together and form a Spinjitzu tornado, and the rounded straw hats actually fill out the top nicely. The bases (and the main build) for all three sets are pretty much identical, with the only difference being the colored trans 1x1 piece decorations. The coloring fits in with the rock and lava style from the main sets, but it would've been nicer if it wasn't the same exact repeat three times; previous spinners have done their bases in different colors, why couldn't we have had that again? Anyway, the idea is you position the spinners on the base, slam down on the lever, and send them spinning. The results vary. You need to apply a lot of force to get them started, so anything half hearted just causes them to immediately slump over. If you can get them moving fast enough, the fins actually fan out as it spins, which is neat. Otherwise, it's a classic Ninjago top. Fun for a little bit, but replay value seems limited (I mean how long can you be entertained by spinners. They've pulled this gimmick off quite a lot and I'm sure it's getting old.) And, of course, there's no real display value. So overall. It's fun, and if you haven't gotten one of these before it could be nice to pick up and test out a bit. And some of the fin pieces could be nice to use in sets, and of course the unique figs are a draw. But unless you want all the figs, not really worth picking up multiple copies. (Alas, I am in the former, and will always beckon to the call of impulse spinner sets with unique figs.)

Huh, I thought Lego Creator would've been the first, but Lego Island actually predates even that one. Interesting stuff. There's a lot of Lego video games out there; I'm curious if they'll eventually delve into some of the online games as well.

More photos on Instagram. The first wave of Hidden Side was pretty great, but the second wave was lackluster. Designs improved again in the third wave, and I think the highlight is the Phantom Fire Truck. It goes for $59.99 and has 760 pieces, including some newer elements. Not bad. This reminds me of the upgraded school bus from last year. The front of the fire truck is well done and lots of nice details. In particular, I like the wheel guard designs they came up with here, very clever. Inside the cab also has a small living space with a computer monitor (sorry, no picture of that) but I did find the top a bit tough to take off; it tends to take too many pieces off when I do. The back of the truck looks okay, even if the blue turret is a bit of an odd attachment. But then suddenly the back shifts and a mech steps off the truck. And I'll be honest; I was only lukewarm towards the set until I learned about the transforming feature. The mech itself isn't super well proportioned; the leg joints are a bit clunky, to be honest. But the fact that the legs fold up and transform quite seamlessly into the back of the truck is cool enough to forgive all the other flaws. And, to be fair, the turret arms look pretty crazy, especially with the multi-layered disc design they used. The main enemy is this spindly ghost guy. His legs are made up of black vines attached to a standard base, but surprisingly he had a couple of poses you can put him in (even if some put him off balance.) And honestly, you don't often have a figure shaped like this, so I'll give them credit for being innovative with him too. The figs are a standard batch of the Ghost fighters or whatever; I'm not sure there's too much different between them here and their versions in the School Bus. You do get one spooky black fig, who has a neat transparent head. The new walking computer is a nice callback to Alpha Team. Speaking of callbacks, there are a lot of references to old themes in the stickers, but the most important one is the Hau. I always appreciate Bionicle references, and they may influence my decisions to buy these larger sets sometimes. Overall, this is a solid set with a good cast of figs and a fun transforming feature. And the pieces are good too. I haven't grabbed any of the other wave 3 sets, but I picked up this one because it looked the best of the batch and it does not disappoint. (And maybe there won't be any more Hidden Side sets next year, so it's worth getting this one to end the theme with a bang.)

More photos on Instagram. I'm a sucker for Ninjago sets, and the new Skull Dungeons theme looks pretty crazy. I want some of the larger sets but don't currently have the budget for them, so I picked up the cheaper one earlier this year to get the figs and get into the theme. It's 401 pieces for $29.99, so not a bad value. So this small set doesn't appear to be any major location, but mostly builds a rock ledge with some steps leading up to it. That premise is actually kind of boring, if I'm being honest, but the bricks will be useful if I want to make more MOCs that use rockwork designs in em. The main trail of steps are connected to hinges so you can rotate them a bit; this is incorporated into attaching this set to the others and build up a massive board for some sort of game. The concept is interesting, but it doesn't really add a whole lot to this small set alone. The spiral stairs that lead up to the top of the rocks is a more interesting design; not unprecedented but still solid. The rock wall features some wooden panels and trans orange lava flowing by, which helps build up the scene. There's a small wooden fence on the top (where the black sword is stored, I guess) and there's a pulley system attached to a small cage. The cage is well done, but it does use techniques from previous sets (some in the Ninjago theme, although it also reminds me of Pirate of the Caribbean.) The back is mostly empty, but I think it's supposed to be the sleeping quarters for the troll. There's also a few torches utilizing the flame piece in trans green, which is a plus. There's a small side build that includes a stand for the character and three hearts which goes with the board game setup. Instead of a character, I put the new spinner on it in the photos. The new spinner piece is cleverly also a dice; it has a hexagon style build with one, two, or three dots printed; so you spin it and whichever side is facing up is your roll number. A fun way to incorporate spinjitzu into the game. I have a habit of collecting all the Ninja figs, and you get three in this set: Jay, Lloyd, and Nya. They're extra armored up here, with massive shoulder places and extra silver printing on their torsos. In addition to some standard weapons, they also have shields with dragon prints on em! There's also a sand green troll who wouldn't look out of place in a fantasy castle theme. Honestly, while this set has some benefits, it's pretty lacking, especially compared to some of the larger sets like the full Skull Dungeons or the Bone Dragon. It feels very much like a supplemental set to add onto the larger ones; it gives you a taste of the full theme at a cheaper price point, but doesn't quite hold up on its own. And yet, it has three Ninja, the new spinner, the fancy black sword, and the crazy green flame elements. I feel like if you can afford it, the larger sets would be more appealing.

More photos on Instagram. Okay, Jurassic World continues to push out lackluster sets that I want just for the dinos. (The big one this year with the Ankylosaurs is pretty bland, but I want it for the Ankylosaurs!) This set is cheaper but it definitely shows. All the same, you get two baby dinos here; a small baby Ankylosaurs and a slightly larger baby Triceratops. The set is almost worth it for the two dinos alone; and if you're not interested in them, then don't bother, as the rest of the set isn't really worth it. ($19.99 for 164 pieces is a bad value, although pretty standard for licensed themes at this price point.) The build is the interior of a lab, but it's very sparse. (Granted, it looks better with the stickers, but since I'm not planning to keep this together for long, I didn't apply them.) On the far right, you have a window into an enclosure for the dinos, with a convenient lever to knock it down and allow them to invade the lab. (Seriously, why does Jurassic Park build destruction levers in all their buildings? Seems like the opposite thing they should do for safety's sake!) Then there are some computer monitors and screens, and a little tables with a basic microscope built in. (Some of the Friends science sets have had better lab equipment designs.) The most interesting build is the egg display on the left, with a little dome and a robot arm that can pick up the eggs. And the most interesting piece is a 1x1 trans orange brick with a mosquito printed on it, to resemble the bug trapped in amber. Classic reference there! The figs are Own and Dr. Wu, who have been in plenty of other sets before and are hardly even worthwhile to comment on. The Ankylosaurs has some great details and printing on it; it can fit onto a 2x3 plate and had a single stud on it's back. The Triceratops is about twice as big, and the bricks in its back can be removed to allow a fig to ride it (in Lego horse style). The two baby dino molds are great. Is this set worth it? I mean... no, probably not. Jurassic Park / World sets have a problem with having very lackluster builds but then intricate dino molds that jack up the set prices, and the two baby dinos do that here. They're great molds, better than getting another raptor or something. But it is a little spendy to get them, and outside of the amber brick, there's not a whole lot else that's exciting in this set. So the value really depends on how much you want the baby dinos. The rest is just filler.