Set Review - #60326-1: Picnic in the Park - CITY

I don’t often purchase or review CITY sets, but every once in a while a set comes out that interests me. Set #60326-1: Picnic in the Park was released on 2 January 2022 in the US. It contains 147 pieces to include the first LEGO squirrels. I don’t know why I was so interested in LEGO squirrels, but I thought they would make a good addition to a future LEGO City scene I hope to work on some day. This set retails for $19.99 which works out to $0.136 per piece. I think this is a bit high, but I did find it on sale (after purchasing it… go figure).

Like most sets, the front of the box shows the full set while the back shows some of the play features to include two bike helmets so two of the minifigures can use the bike and cart.

The contents are two numbered parts bags and an instruction booklet for each bag. The set also contains a sticker sheet with one sticker.

The first bag builds a bicycle with a cart behind it. The cart is almost as large as the bicycle, but given the scale of LEGO parts, it works. Next is a small cart for a maintenance worker in the park. The cart has space for one minifigure to ride in it, has clips for tools, and space in the back to carry a load. The vehicle comes with two tools, a shovel and pitch fork and then some plants..

There are two minifigures in this bag. One is an adult female and the other is an adult male. The female is the bicycle rider and comes with two helmets (one for the minifigure in bag two). The male minifigure has what could be a uniform on. His face has some wrinkles which makes me assume they meant for him to be an older minifigure.

The second bag builds a small picnic area. It has a tree and then a picnic table. The tree is simply built, but comes with some greenery pieces great for future MOCs so no complaints there. You get the acorns in this bag. They are 1x1 round printed tiles. You can attach them to the tree or have them on the ground. The two squirrels are in this bag. One is brown and one is black. I placed them both on the picnic table, but you can see the brown one in the box behind the set (poor placement on my part). They have a spot to slide on a stud on the bottom so you can set them wherever.

There is one minifigure in this bag. It’s a younger male minifigure who can ride in the cart from bag one. You also get two beverage holders and a 2x2 tile printed to be a pizza box. I don’t normally take a pizza on a picnic in the park, but I guess you could.

Here are the three minifigures. I’m not sure if they have new outfits or not, but they are a decent addition to a CITY scene.

Overall, not a bad set considering the age range and theme. It’s a bit overpriced, but watch for sales. The addition of squirrels is fun and I hope to see LEGO continue to add more animals into the future. I’m not sure how many CITY sets I’ll be building in the future, but it was a fun change of pace from the usual sets I build.

Happy building!

Set Review - #60223-1: Harvester Transport - LEGO CITY

Another LEGO CITY set to take a look at. LEGO has done a farm theme within CITY in the past. A quick search in Brickset found that there was a farm subtheme in 2009. I found it on Brickset here. This set does not seem to be a part of a larger subtheme. Instead, it is more of a one off like the Snow Groomer.

#60223-1: Harvester Transport was released in the US on 1 Jan 19. It contains 358 pieces and retails for $29.99 in the US. That brings it to $0.084 per piece. I picked it up on Amazon.com for 20% off or $23.99.

Here’s the box. It’s the standard presentation with the front showing the full set and the back showing some play features.

The contents are 4 parts bags, 2 instruction booklets, and a small sticker sheet. Besides the instructions being jammed in, I found bags 1 and 3 stuck together by a piece of tape. I’ve never seen this before and I’m not quite sure why it’s like that. Someone within LEGO Quality Control needs to investigate this one. I don’t know how a piece of tape would even get inside of a package like this.

Before I continue with the review, I will note that the box says that this set is for ages 5+. At the time I purchased this set, I had a newly turned 5 year-old kiddo so I had some help. I had help building and a photographer to take pictures of what we built.

Bag one builds the truck that pulls the trailer that carries the harvester. The truck isn’t anything too out of the ordinary. I like the use of the shield plates on the front to help create the front bumper. Bag one comes with a minifigure to drive the truck. He has sun glasses and like many LEGO CITY trucks, a coffee mug.

The second bag completes the trailer that hooks to the truck. The build is fairly simple although my 5 year-old had trouble with anything that needed to clip on and had trouble installing any 1x1 plates or tiles. On the other hand, the wheels were not an issue and they got properly tested to ensure they spun appropriately prior to moving on.

The third bag starts the harvester and has a farmer minifigure and scarecrow. The scarecrow looks more like a scarecrow that would be in a farmer’s field then some of the full up minifigure scarecrows of the past LEGO has made. The build for the harvester starts the main body of the vehicle in this bag.

The fourth and final bag finishes the harvester. It has a fun design for the shoot to deposit the grain into a truck (not sure of the technical term here). The arm rotates back and forth as well as up and down. The rotating pieces in the front that would cut the plant are hooked in using Technic pins. That portion can rotate up and down and the outer blades also fold up. The whole front assembly can be removed and installed on the truck for transport. The cab top comes off so the driver can get in. My 5 year-old required a lot of help to put this together. Also, Dad is a perfectionist when it comes to stickers so I was the sticker placer. My 1 year-old ended up playing with the harvester for a bit. It actually held up pretty well. The only challenge was that he held it by the cab and the cab kept coming off. Other than that it’s pretty solid and 5+ seems like a good age range (with some help from a parent or another adult).

Below is a final picture of the set with the harvester stored on the trailer for transport. Overall it is a fun build. Nothing too overly challenging, but a few Technic parts that can be challenging for a younger kid. The set has a lot of moving parts and pieces which are good for play. It also opens up the possibility of building more (a field to harvest, a farm, a barn, etc.). Being able to get the set on sale was an added bonus. I’d recommend this set to any LEGO CITY fan. Even if you don’t have a farm scene, it is a vehicle that can fit on a road or highway you’re building. Definitely pick it up on sale if you’re going to get it.

Happy building!

Brick Harry Potter is Back

Harry Potter themed LEGO sets first appeared in 2001 and new sets last appeared in 2011. In case you’ve been living under a rock or maybe you’re like me and you’ve been through a move, Harry Potter is back in brick form, but there are some new things that haven’t been seen before.

First off are Brick Headz. I haven’t talked about this theme at all on the blog yet and this is my first step into the theme. I personally have not been impressed with the theme thus far. It appears as though LEGO has just taken all of its licenses and used this building method to sell more items that collectors might be interested in. You can collect from sub-themes like Disney Brick Headz or Marvel Super Hero Brick Heads or even try and get them all. These 5 are the first ones that I’ve build. They are 41621 Ron Weasley and Albus Dumbledore (245 pieces, $19.99 in the US), 41616 Hermione Granger (127 pieces, $9.99 in the US), and 41615 Harry Potter and Hedwig (180 pieces, $14.99 in the US). I did not get any of these on sale although Amazon.com had 41615 for 20% off recently (after I purchased it from LEGO Shop at Home for full price). My guess is there will be a Black Friday 2018 sale and then they will go on sale at Amazon.com or elsewhere towards the end of their shelf life similar to many of the other Brick Headz sets.

I am not going to go through the builds of these like I often do as they are all pretty similar. They all use some SNOT techniques to come up with similar designs. Other than some of the original or creative ones like the Valentine Bee (40270) or Easter Bunny (40271), these are all fairly similar. To be honest I’m rather disappointed and I don’t think I’ll be purchasing any more Brick Headz sets.

Is anyone else into Brick Headz? What do you like about them?

Part 2 is the Harry Potter Collectible Minifigure series (#71022) that came out in the US on 1 August 2018. They retailed for $3.99 each and there are 22 minifigures total in the set. The Collectible Minifigure series used to always have 16 each so it is interesting to see LEGO adjust the number in a series. I haven’t found anything on the reasoning yet.

Another difference in this series is in the break up of the minifigures. The movie “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” is supposed to come out in the US in November 2018 which is probably part of the reasoning for the return of Harry Potter in LEGO form. There are 6 minifigures from the Fantastic Beasts series of movies while the remaining 16 are from the original Harry Potter books/movies.

The first 16 I’ll discuss are from the Harry Potter books/movies.

I was trying to pick out which movie these are from, but it is a mix. For example, Luna Lovegood is introduced in “The Order of the Phoenix,” but Cedric Diggory is from “The Goblet of Fire.” Dobby the House Elf is introduced in “The Chamber of Secrets” and Professor Flitwick is first in “The Sorcerer’s Stone,” but his appearance like the minifigure isn’t until “The Chamber of Secrets” (thanks Google). So the minifigs are from a smattering of movies in the Harry Potter series.

The complete list of minifigures are (from front to back and left to right from my picture) Harry Potter with Hedwig, Professor Flitwick, Harry Potter with the invisibility cloak, Hermonie Granger with her cat named Crookshanks (another score for Google), Professor Albus Dumbledore, Cho Chang, Neville Longbottom, Cedric Diggory, Luna Lovegood, Professor Sybill Trelawney, Voldemort, Dean Thomas, Ron Weasley with Scabbers, Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody, Dobby, and Draco Malfoy. In my opinion, it’s a pretty decent set of minifigures across all of the movies. There are a few key ones missing, but I guess that opens it up for LEGO to do another set. Maybe include Professors Snape or McGonagall, Hagrid, some of the Weasley’s (Ginny), Beatrix Lestrange… the list could go on for a while. It will be interesting to see if LEGO does another series or not.

Next up, the Fantastic Beasts minifigs.

I have seen “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” only once and I have not read the book. There are 6 minifigs from this movie and besides Newt Scamander (center front in the picture, I am not familiar with them all. So from left to right, front to back, there are Percival Graves, Newt with his Knarl, Tina Goldstein, Jacob Kowalski, Queenie Goldstein, and Credence Barebone.

Overall, I think this is a good set of minifigs between the two movie themes. It gives a good variety of minifigures, the accessories that come with them are good, it adds some new characters/elements not seen before, and it does a decent job of capturing the likeness of the movie characters. If you are a Harry Potter/Wizarding World fan, I recommend getting these. If you’re a glutton for punishment and LEGO has sucked you into collecting all of the CMFs since series 10 (or earlier for some of you) like me then plop down your funds for 22 of these. Locally in Germany, I have not seen these out much. Either they sold fast or the retailers don’t have them. I had no issue getting them online and am looking forward to being able to sell my extras in the store once it re-opens in a few years.

I have a few reviews of the Harry Potter sets on the way so stay tuned.

Happy building!

LEGO® Store Review - Mall of America

I have been good at putting a new blog post up weekly until last week.  I have a good excuse though...  I happened to be away and I had the chance to tie in LEGO® while I was away.  In case you all weren't aware, the Mall of America is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota (okay, it's actually Bloomington, but close enough).  It's very large and has a ton of stores inside along with an amusement park.  You can go to the link above to see more about the mall, but back to the important stuff... the mall contains a LEGO® Brand store.  

Fitting with the largest mall in the US, the LEGO® store comes across as large too.  Here is the front.

First off, it has its own building area with couches and tables.  The tables have built in base plates to make stacking bricks easier.  The store also has a number of very large brick built models on top to add to the expanse of the store.  I'm not sure if they are permanently there or if they swap out models... I didn't think to ask.  

Here are some closer shots  of the models.

The inside of the store didn't have much different from other stores other than it seemed a little more spread out.  They had the standard building areas for kids (or adults) and all of the sets seemed to be in stock.  One thing that I noticed in this store and maybe it is in all stores, but I wasn't paying attention, was that the really big expensive sets were not stocked on the shelves.  They just had a single version of each one.  A customer in line ahead of me purchased the Star Wars Sandcrawler (#75059) and the worker told him that they only keep an empty box of the set out so kids don't wreck them.  The worker mentioned that some people buy these as collectors items versus buying the set to build it.  I was glad to see that they took note of that and were trying their best to help their fans out.  Another note on stock levels in the store, they had the Volkswagen Beetle (#10252) and the Disney Castle (#71040) available (at the time of this post #71040 was sold out online).  You'll also notice that they have the standard display case windows around the store.  The windows in the picture show some of the sets available to include the modular building #10251 - Brick Bank and #10248 Ferrari F40.  

In terms of the store, the workers were pretty involved with customers.  Many were walking around with constructed sets or parts of sets and they all seemed to be answering questions.  One was explaining to a family with kids how to best stack pieces in a pick-a-brick cup to get the most pieces in there.  She said that they "didn't want to pay for air."  The customer service interactions were definitely at a higher level than the Tysons Corner Center store I went to this past summer.  They also had some of the larger sets on display outside of the windowed display areas to include the Technic Bucket Wheel Excavator (#42055) which was built and by the registers.  Also, one of the windows had some creations built by "our model builders."  I'm not sure who they are, but here is a picture of what they built.

As for buying anything, while the store was fully stocked with all of the current sets I didn't get any new sets.  For one, it's tough to buy something when you know you can get it cheaper elsewhere like at Amazon or Walmart.  I did see one set of parents checking the price of a set at an online location and deciding not to buy due to a cheaper price elsewhere.  The other reason, the sales tax at the store was higher than what I pay locally in FL.  Ordering online from Shop @ Home makes the most sense if I'm going to pay full price for a set directly from Shop @ Home.  I did get a container of bricks from the Pick-a-Brick wall.  The contents of the wall were the same from over the summer when I went to the Tysons Corner Center store, but I still got some pieces.  I realize that it makes it look bigger, but why the need for the giant wall with the fake bricks in the top drawers?

Hopefully I'll make it to more of the branded stores to see which are better or worse.  If you have one nearby that I should checkout some day, please let me know.

Happy building!

Store Review - LEGO® Brand Store - Tysons Corner Center - McLean, VA

I was in the Washington DC area this past weekend with my family and with some downtime decided to stop at a nearby mall (mainly for the air conditioning on a hot day).  As it turns out this mall had one of my favorite stores in it.  The LEGO® brand store in the Tysons Corner Center happened to be open while we were there so of course I hadto check it out.  In walking around the mall it seemed that the bags you saw people carrying most were either Victoria's Secret or yellow with a red 2x4 brick on it.  We followed the bags and ended up at the store.  It was busy.  Lots of kids all over the place building in the various free build areas and running around excited to see all the sets.  A store worker was near the entrance to greet people.  I'm not sure they appointed the right person as this worker was rather quiet and didn't give a smile.  We got "have you been to a LEGO® store before?" and "your kid's outfit is cute."  Great.  Whatever.  I wasn't there to chat with the employees.

The store seemed to be pretty well stocked with all of the different themes.  I didn't inspect each and every one, but I didn't see holes on the shelves either.  One of the items on display in the front of the store was the new Creator Expert - Big Ben #10253.    

As my NLS (non-LEGO® Spouse) commented, it looked beautiful.  I've seen the pictures and designer video, but seeing it up close and personal was pretty cool.  They did an amazing job with the design.  Here's the box on the shelf.

Another set that I finally got to see in person was the LEGO® Technic Porsche 911 GT3 RS (#42056).  First off, it looks incredible and very sleek!  Secondly, it is definitely a lot bigger than I expected.  The picture I took is pretty bad because it's behind glass so you get a reflection and some of the paint on the window, but it's still an impressive model.  The set was on the shelf, but the box was listed as "for display only."  I didn't pick it up to see if it was just the box or the actual set.  My guess is that if you wanted it you had to request it from the workers.  I didn't ask to see if they had them in stock or if you had to order them.

Other things to note about the store... Collectible Minifigures Series 16 releases on 1 August 2016 (I believe), but they were on sale at the store.  I saw at least one AFOL trying to feel through the bags to get the ones he was looking for.  Also, it was a good mix of people buying different items.  Lots of families with kids walking out with smaller bags including Angry Birds sets and Friends.  We also saw someone walk out with a Tower Bridge (#10214).

Did I make a purchase?  Yes!  My NLS did let me or maybe I pressed ahead without asking before she could say no.  Either way, I am a big fan of the Pick-a-Brick wall in the back of every LEGO® brand store that I have been in.  They have 2 size cups that you can pick from and fill as you want.  I picked the larger cup that cost $16.95 in Virginia after tax.  They had a range of parts in different colors and sizes.  I tend to stick to the smaller pieces so you can fit more in and I pick the colors that are not as prevalent.  I have yet to open my container, but I was impressed that the store worker used packaging tape to make sure my container didn't explode so that was good (I'm sure it's from experience and having to clean up messes in the store).  My cup is below:

My favorite by far is the sand green parts that were available.  They had 1x1 bricks and 1x2 plates.  That's not a common color that I tend to see often so I was glad to grab a few.

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Update (August 9 2016):
2 pictures below of the bricks I picked up from the Pick-a-Brick Wall.  I didn't merge them together, but hopefully you can see where the pictures match up.  You'll notice I went for most of the smaller pieces to try and fit more pieces into the container.  In the end I counted 753 pieces from the container.  With the Virginia tax the final came out to be about $0.02 per piece.  I can't complain about that.

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My favorite by far is the sand green parts that were available.  They had 1x1 bricks and 1x2 plates.  That's not a common color that I tend to see often so I was glad to grab a few.

I called it a review so I should give my opinion.  Should you go to this store?  Or any LEGO® brand store?  The selection is great and the additional benefits are useful such as the Pick-a-Brick wall and minifigure creation station.  Plus you get store workers who understand LEGO® and can help you get sets you don't have if they aren't in stock.  They also have some of the harder to find sets that aren't typically in your average retail store.  Finally you can get and use VIP points for your purchases.  The downsides... you don't get the discounts that you can find at places like Target, Walmart, or Amazon.com.  Everything is at the full retail price.  So should you go, I recommend going if you're looking for a harder to find set or price is not your main driver.  The Pick-a-Brick wall is useful if you stack the cup right too.  It's a fairly decent way to get pieces.  Once I open up the cup I purchased, I'll give an update to this post with the number of pieces I got and the different types.  

Do I wish I had a LEGO® brand store closer?  Yes!  Maybe it's better that I don't when it comes to my credit card bill.  What are your thoughts of the LEGO® brand stores?

More Series 15 Minifigs are in!

In the first bunch that I purchased, it didn't include the Faun figure.  I now have it and have completed the set.  You can see my original Series 15 post here.  I also have some additional Series 15 minifigs in the store.  You can see them here.  I have at least one of each of them in the store so if you are short one, take a look.

A Fix for WALL-E

I reviewed set number 21303 here.  It is WALL-E from Disney Pixar's movie about the trash collecting robot that ends up helping to save the human race.  Anyways, the original design was somewhat flawed.  WALL-E's eyes kept spinning around and it was tough to lock them into one place.  In reading some of the LEGO fan sites out there, there were a number of reports that a fix was in place.  I wrote to LEGO customer service and received a response back that yes indeed a fix was in place.  A few days later I received a bubble envelope in the mail.  It contained the following items:

-a small parts bag
-an instruction sheet that shows how to prep the set for the fix
-an instruction booklet for the fix

The final set doesn't look much different from a quick glance.  Here it is along with some of the extra parts.

The close up here shows the new ball joint that prevents WALL-E's eyes from randomly rotating around.  In my opinion, the fix was a success and it doesn't change the set's design drastically enough to be an issue.  I also applaud LEGO's handling of the redesign.  I was sent the fix promptly and at no cost.  It shows that LEGO values their customers and wants to make sure their products are of the highest quality.  

If you've purchased WALL-E or done the fix, I'm curious to know what you think.  Please post your thoughts in the comments.

55 Minifigures for $62 with Free Shipping???? WHAT????

At my last show in Rio Rancho I had a parent tell me that she found a large number of minifigures online for dirt cheap.  It was something like 46 minifigures for $28 or something.  The parent said I should check it out and that she had placed an order.  They hadn't arrived yet, but were due in from China.  My first thought was that these minifigures cannot be true LEGO minifigures. 

So I did a Google search... I won't post the link, but I'm sure you can find them...  I found a site selling 55 Marvel Super Hero minifigures for $61.36 with free shipping from Chenghai, China.  The cost goes down with the more sets that you purchase.  The figures are labeled as "LEGO Compatible," but clearly are not LEGO brand as if you look closely you can see the LEGO studs do not have the LEGO logo on them.  

From looking at the pictures, the representations look pretty darn accurate and very close to LEGO figures.  They clearly did some major copying of what LEGO did.  I'm sure this company has paid LEGO royalty fees for using its designs and I'll bet they've paid for the use of the various Super Hero logos and designs too.  (yes, I'm kidding there)  Not having purchased these myself, I can't say whether the quality matches LEGO or anything else related to the physical products.

Should you buy knockoff minifigures?  That's completely up to you.  My personal opinion is that you shouldn't.  Besides the fact that I sell LEGO minfigures and this is direct competition to my business, you don't know what you're going to get.  If there are issues, do you trust a seller in China to provide you with good customer service or to help fix issues?  If you're not concerned about that, then give it a shot.  If you or your kids don't care that the minifigures are not from LEGO, then you can probably save some money.  If you've purchased some knockoff minifigures, please let me know.  Send an email (store@bricksforbricks.com) or post in the comments.  I'd like to know what you think of them.

With all that being said, please know that the minifigures sold by Bricks for Bricks are all genuine LEGO branded minifigures.  There are no knock off parts for China or anywhere else.

Set Review - Detective's Office - #10246 (Part 2)

(Read part 1 here)

It took me a few days to finish it up, but here is the completed Detective Office modular building.  All of the minifigures are happily inside.