Set Review - #43249-1: Stitch - Disney

LEGO is expanding the buildable characters that are less than a foot tall and about 6 to 8 inches wide. We had them with Star Wars and here we have it with Disney. #43249-1: Stitch was released on 1 March 2024 for $64.99. It contains 730 pieces which comes out to $0.089 per piece. This isn’t a bad deal, but I suspect if you wait until maybe closer to Christmas time, this set will be discounted 10% or 20%.

I took pictures during the build and somehow they got messed up when I transferred them to my computer so this won’t be the normal review (sorry).

Here’s the box. The front has the LEGO and Disney logos. It has the full set and then a cartoon drawing of Stitch on the bottom. The back shows how you can move some of the parts like his ears.

The set contains 7 parts bags, a small sticker sheet, and the instructions. The sticker sheet is the flowers for his Hawaiian shirt so it’s not a ton of stickers to place on the set.

Here’s a close up of the small instruction booklet and then I took a picture of the stickers and my computer messed it up somehow so it’s tiny. You get 12 full flowers and then 2 half flowers for the shirt.

The build starts with his torso and then adds his legs, arms, and then his head. The head comes off (as you can see). It’s attached by a Technic pin and you can rotate it as desired for display. The arms and legs don’t really move, but you can adjust his claws. As shown on the box, the ears can move and his mouth moves very slightly, but not by much.

The eye pieces are printed (thankfully) and you just put them in so it helps to make the build easier versus having brick built eyes.

The flower can be removed. There is a small piece to make a connection on his head as desired.

Here’s the final build. I added the ice cream cone in for this picture. You can take it out of his hand if you want. This picture also lets you see the stickers on his Hawaiian shirt. I’m guessing they didn’t print them on as it’s a curved piece. Maybe?

Overall it’s a fun set with some interesting SNOT techniques to get the shaping. My 6 year old helped me build it and we had a good time putting it together. It wasn’t too hard if you have experience building. The set has some playability, but is mostly a display piece. If you are a MOC builder, you get a bunch of brightly colored pieces if you just wanted to assemble this once and then take it apart. The price isn’t bad, but wait for a sale and you can get it at an even better price.

Happy building!

Set Review - #40619-1: EVE and WALL-E- Brickhead

Another Brickheadz aet for review… This one is #40619-1: EVE and WALL-E. It contains 155 pieces and retails for $14.99 in the US. This works out to $0.097 per piece. It was released on 31 January 2023 in the US and so far I have only seen it from LEGO, but not at Walmart or Target. Maybe that will change? This one is not branded for the Disney 100 anniversary, but its release happens to coincide with the anniversary. For those of you not aware, this is not the first WALL-E set. The first was #21303-1: WALL-E from the LEGO Ideas line.

The box is rather small, but this is to be expected for a set containing 155 pieces. The front of the box shows the two Brickheadz characters while the back gives the same shot and shows that there are bases for each character. Also of note, WALL-E is #193 and EVE is #194 in the Brickheadz line.

The set contains three parts bags. Two are #1 and one is #2. There are also two 8x8 black plates which are separate. Instruction booklet one is WALL-E and goes with bag one. Instruction booklet two goes with bag two and is EVE.

And here are the two. WALL-E has his lunch box and the plant in a boot. I think the designers capture the shape well and did a good job making decisions on the details to include or not. The eyes and sockets have the same shape, but they do not move around. Also the neck joint is there so you can have the head look up/down. The tracks are a good representation of the character and they are attached to the side while clear plates are used to keep WALL-E attached to the display plate. Besides the printed eyes, he also has a printed brick with the WALL-E logo.

EVE “floats” on a clear brick and captures the character well. White Nexo Knight shields are used for the arms and she has no printed piece. Interestingly, they added a small plant piece inside to be the space where she is supposed to store plants that she finds which is a fun detail you only know about if you build the set.

I included a picture of the side and back just for awareness, but there aren’t a lot of details you can see there.

Overall, they are good Brickheadz representations of the two characters. I recommend getting them if you are a Brickheadz collector or a fan of the movie or Disney stuff in general. Otherwise, I’d avoid this one as it doesn’t offer a whole lot else.

Happy building!

Is This The Train We're Looking For?

If you’ve looked at my blog, you’ll see that I don’t post on the latest and greatest sets out. I also don’t rush to get new sets or get sets shipped to me for reviews. I tend to look for sales or opportunities to get an expensive set with a deal like coming with a free set or Double VIP points. With that being said, I’m a big fan of LEGO trains and I miss some of the Creator Expert like trains that were released over the past 10 years or so. I’d like to see more train related sets come out and I’ve advocated for using the Ideas system to do that here and here.

There is a reason why we haven’t seen more Creator Expert like trains. An interview with LEGO Designer Jamie Berard, he discusses how LEGO doesn’t make the money they want on Creator Expert trains. He mentions how they try and fit the train theme in on other themes. We’ve seen it with Harry Potter, CITY, Hidden Side and now Disney. The goal is to get fans interested in another theme to get a train versus targeting train fans.

So #71044-1: Disney Train and Station was released to VIPs on 21 August 2019 and I believe 1 September 2019 is the release date to everyone else (in the US). The set is $329.99 and is 2,925 pieces ($0.113/piece). It includes a train, a station, 5 minifigures, 16 curved pieces of track and 4 straight pieces of track.. The set comes with motorized functions via the Powered Up app. There are lots of reviews on sites and YouTube so if you want more, check them out.

Enough about that… this is not a review and I have not bought the set. The real question is, does this train fulfill the need for a Creator Expert like train? It has close to 3,000 pieces, it looks to have a lot of detail on the train and station which is good. I have yet to build it so I can’t say anything about the building techniques, but it does not look like it is just stacking bricks one on top of the other. From an initial look, it seems pretty positive.

From a train fan perspective, I’m not sure if this is what I’m looking for. It is a great set to go around your Disney park, your castle, to go around with your minifigures, and to proclaim the greatness of Disney. It is not something that is going to roll through a train station next to the Horizon Express or the Emerald Night. It doesn’t seem to go with those sets. I’ve seen a few videos out there where people have had this train run by the Disney Castle and the Creator Expert fairground sets. So maybe if you’re going to make a theme park display, this one would fit in.

I have mixed feelings about this set and I’m not sure it is worth buying or spending my VIP points on. What are your thoughts?

Set Review - #71024-1: Disney Minifigures, Series 2 - Collectible Minifigures

The Disney Series 2 minifigures were released back on 1 May 2019. While most the the big fan sites have covered these a long time ago, I am a normal fan and it took a while to get all 18. I finally got them all and here is my review. So sorry it’s late, but I don’t get a free shipment from LEGO or go out and buy them right away to have the first review out there.

As mentioned previously, LEGO has limited the purchases you can make from Shop @ Home to 18. With that being said, you can go to a LEGO Brand Store and buy as many as they have in stock. The retail price is $3.99 per bag. I purchased mine from Amazon and they were $3.92 at a time. In checking today, they are listed at $2.99 each. I’m not sure if it’s an ongoing sale or a permanent drop in price, but sweet! Walmart shows the same $2.99 price as well. Hopefully this will become a trend and you can take advantage of waiting to get the minifigures by getting them at lower prices.

The bag size matches the larger size used for #71023-1: LEGO Movie 2 Minifigures.

Onto the review…

Next up is Hercules and Hades from the cartoon movie “Hercules.” Unlike Ursula from series 1, Hades has a bottom half and top half versus a larger bottom piece that the torso fits in. Another change is that Hades hair piece is permanently attached to the head piece. I initially was shocked that the hair was attached and thought it somehow became assembled during shipment. Then I realized it was permanent. Odd… Hades was one of the lease popular in the orders I made.

I had to make sure I got it right. Chip has a brown nose and Dale has the red nose. These weren’t as popular in my purchases. I think I got one extra of Dale only.

Series 1 Disney had Genie and Aladdin. This series includes Jafar and Jasmine.

The last bunch are Scrooge McDuck, Dewey (blue), Huey (red), and Louie (green). I had to look them up to verify I got them all right. These were the least popular in the orders I made and I was concerned I wouldn’t get any. It did bring back some good memories of watching “Duck Tales” as a kid. Anyone else remember that cartoon?

I have never seen “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” but this series includes Sally and
Jack Skellington. Sally comes with two black flowers and Jack comes with a gift with 1x1 round tile snowflakes inside. In my purchases, these were not hard to find, but I did not get a lot of extras.

The LEGO Ideas set has some that are slightly different than Vintage Mickey and Vintage Minnie. I think the steering wheel is a bit too big and the life raft looks more like how I see it used regularly… as a toilet seat. There were a lot of extras of both of these minifigures in my purchases.

I don’t think they could get away without doing Anna and Elsa from “Frozen.” They already appear in the Disney sets, but these are the first in true minifigure form. These minifigures were very popular in the purchases that I made and I got a lot of extras.

The last series had Mr. Incredible and Syndrome. This one includes Edna Mode and Frozone. Edna is my favorite in this series. I like how they did the giant glasses that make her eyes look bigger. It’s a great representation of the movie character in my opinion.

Overall this is a decent series. The representations of the actual characters in minifigure form were done well. In my opinion, it’s a good mix of characters from the Disney universe and I’m sure in a year or two we’ll see Series 3 with even more if the license with Disney continues.

If you’re a sucker for collecting these sets like me, the lesson learned here is to have patience and wait for better pricing. Hopefully this will become the trend and companies like Amazon and Walmart will cut the price to $2.99 or lower after a while. If you are going to buy them, you might as well wait for them to be at a better price than go through LEGO and their higher pricing. When the LEGO Movie 2 minifigures were discounted on Shop @ Home, they were only $3.19 so still a better deal to get them elsewhere.

Should there be a Series 3 or should they just move on? I’m hoping we can have more original minifigures versus licensed ones, but the licensed ones probably sell better. What are your thoughts on this series?

Set Review - Disney Minifigures - #71012

Update - 19 May - The first of a few Disney Minifigures have been added to the store.  I don't have the full range for sale yet, but more will be added soon.  You can find them all here.

They have been out since 1 May so I'm a little late to the review, but it took a while for my orders to arrive.  The price in the US has remained the same at $3.99 per minifigures, but there have been a few changes.  For starters the set now includes 18 versus the standard 16 minifigures per set.  While it's great to have more figures out there, it means you need to spend more of your money if you want to complete the whole set ($71.82 vs $63.84 before taxes).  Another change, if you buy your figures from LEGO Shop at Home, they now only let you buy up to 18 versus the 32 that you used to be able to buy.  What does that mean?  You can't just order collectible minifigures and get the free shipping over $75.  Now you have to buy another set to go with them to get free shipping.  

Another area which I'm sure has been debated elsewhere is the use of Licensed material versus original LEGO designed content.  It seems that LEGO is producing more and more licensed products.  Is that a bad thing?  I'm sure people are buying them so they keep making them, but having the imaginative sets is also good too.  Does LEGO have the right mix of both between themes like CITY and NEXO KNIGHTS and others versus STAR WARS and THE SIMPSONS and others?  I'm not sure I know the answer there either.

So onto the figures...

First off we have Stitch from "Lilo & Stitch."  I think they did a good job with this figure.  It's pretty accurate and using the shorter minifig legs helps.  Next is Peter Pan.  The face and printed torso and legs do a good job at capturing him, but I wonder if they should have used the shorter legs as well since Peter is a kid.  Finally Alice from Alice in Wonderland.  I like the plastic dress much better than some of the cloth dresses that have been used on past figures.  It limits the movement of the arms, but that's okay by me.

I'm not sure how they decided which figures to do, but it's good that they did Peter Pan and Captain Hook.  Hook is pretty tall, but I think they did a good job capturing his look.  The hat is a nice touch.  Maleficient is next.  I'll be honest and say that I had no idea who that was until I got this minifigure.  Based on a Google search, I think this one was done pretty accurately.  The final one in this row is Ursula from "The Little Mermaid."  I think they did a good job capturing her look and the tentacles were done well.

Syndrome is from Disney Pixar's "The Incredibles."  It's an interesting selection as they chose him and Mr. Incredible.  Why not Mrs. Incredible?  Minnie Mouse is next.  It looks like Minnie, but it's pretty big in terms of height.  I guess it's tough if you want to get the head to look right, you have to get the rest of the body to match the size.  Next up, the Genie from "Aladdin."  I don't have much to say about this one other than I think it matches well with the character from the movie.

I think it's interesting to see Toy Story minifigures again.  They just did a line of Toy Story sets with minifigures so why do more?  The Pizza Planet Alien looks the same although it has some slight color changes from the last minifigures released.  Next up is Buzz Lightyear and This one looks almost exactly the same except for one major change... instead of the actual shaped head, it's a minifigure head.  I'm not sure why they chose a minifigure head versus the shape.  There are some slight color variations too.  You can see the original figure here.  Last in this row is Ariel... "The Little Mermaid."  While I think it's a good figure, LEGO definitely modeled it off of Marsha Queen of the Mermaids from "the LEGO Movie.."  They even matched the shell and jewel.  

Donald and Daisy look okay and the heads were done well.  I do think they are a little tall though.  Aladdin matches well although I'm not sure why they give Aladdin and the Genie a lamp.  Where's Abu?

Last up is Mickey.  He looks good to me!

As mentioned there are 18 figures total.  I'm missing the Cheshire Cat and Mr. Incredible.  I will add them to this post once I get them.  

Should you run out and pick some of these up?  That's your call.  Are you a big Disney fan?  I think some of the newer characters are nice to see like Captain Hook, Stitch, Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, and Donald.  I'm not sure why they re-did Toy Story again... the character selection could have been a little better.  I also find it interesting that there are 2 Ariel figures with one in the Disney Princess type and the other more like a standard minifigure.   Either way, I'm sure we can expect more Disney minifigures to come.