#creativeambush

This is the 2nd The Lego Movie set that I'm reviewing, after the Getaway Glider.  And again, I'd like to thank the Lego CEE team for giving us these sets to review.

Do you remember that day when you were maybe 10 or 12 years old when you first hit that sweet spot with Lego?  This was when you just got the hang of playing with Lego, and you started to think that what you were making was the shiznitz?  Do you remember the time when you could sit in front of a pile of assorted bricks and parts and what not-and make a flying car with extendable wings that shot missiles and had a big booster but could also submerge under water?  And do you remember the time when you did submerge it under water? 

Well this set brought me back to that time, a little bit at first and then a lot bit - but we'll get to that later.  Let's get started with the preliminaries.  

THE BOX and CONTENTS

The box art follows the standard The Lego Movie template - a film strip with the built set elements in front.  The elements show a saloon turned biplane attacking a borg-like cube.  Behind it, you'll find a shawarma stand that is either providing support to the biplane as its wingman or attacking its rear - the angle makes it quite difficult to discern.  I'm sure once we get to watch the movie this weekend, we'll find out more about the story behind this set.

The set has two instruction booklets along with the sticker sheet and four numbered bags inside the box.

THE BUILD - Bag 1

Bag 1 contains the borg-like cube on legs.  (Lego.com says that the cube is called a Micromanager - I'm sure it's going to tie-up well with the antagonist of the movie - President / Lord Business!), and the first of four minifigs we have with this set, Executive Ellen.

I know I keep saying borg-like cube.  You want to know why?  It's because it builds like a borg cube. 

The build of the cube (ok, MicroManager or MM) is pretty straight forward.  There's no SNOT going on, just some plain-old-fashioned greebling with the trans red and the very versatile roof tile with lattice.  The side panels are attached via knobbed 1x2 and 1x4 bricks. 

- tangent (you can skip through this part) - 

I remember the first time I encountered this piece as I was getting out of my dark ages about 8 or so years ago.  My mind was blown!  All this time, I had a problem getting plates to stand vertical against horizontal ones, and here comes Lego with this piece!  Ingenious!

- end of tangent -

And the entire build of the MM is only 16 steps long.  One of the interesting build techniques I found was using the 3x2 modified plate w/hole (Design ID number 3176) as the socket for the legs to be put through.  I don't usually build mechs, and when I do there's usually a clip or a joint used for the articulation of the limbs, so finding this NPU was very welcome for me.

Once the MM gets done, it's pretty menacing.  From a borg-cube, it now has a chicken walker / AT-ST thing going.  Though I wonder why there's a clip at its back, given that there was only one flick-fire missile that came with the set...

The minifig that came with the first bag is Executive Ellen.  

I think that as a general rule, all minifigs that are coming out with the TLM sets are unique minifigs, except for the duplicates of Emmet and Wyldstyle, of course.  This fig, for instance has a unique face, torso and hairpiece.  The torso and head both have back prints.  The pinstripe print on the torso makes Executive Ellen's blazer look oh so professional, and you could easily place this fig in the boardroom of any brick-company.  Her "normal" face is one of serious concentration, while her alternate face is one of serious consternation.  Her hairpiece is a unique brown - all the other colors of this piece are either black or red - and gives her that strong woman vibe - although I personally think she looks suspiciously like Edna Mode from the Incredibles.

THE BUILD - Bag 2

The second bag gives us the flying shawarma stand.  This build is pretty straightforward as well.  I mean, it's a shawarma stand.  That flies!  It uses the chalk/menu board for wings, and four black wheels for it thrusters.  I was able to particularly appreciate the small details that Lego and their designers put into the set.  "Would you want some garlic sauce and hot sauce with your shawarma sir?" Here's a round 1x1 brick and a similarly colored tap for that.  "The night's getting dark?"  Use my gauge as your headlights!  "You need to shoot down some baddies?"  Here's a shawarma cone! "You're going to bump into some enemies?" My frying pans are your bumpers! 

Of course, the shawarma stand (Ok, Lego calls it a kabob stand - but we all know it's a shawarma stand) won't be complete without roast beef, and the set comes with the first ever jet exhaust/rocket cone in reddish brown to fit the bill!

It's a cute little fighter, and I was reminded of one of the SW ships with the design - the Republic Attack Shuttle, with its folding wings.

The minifig that came with bag number 2 is, I suppose, the proprietor of Bob's Kabobs, Kabob Bob.  BobBob is apparently from the Southern Luzon region, where they call everyone Ka-something: Ka Berto, Ka Tomas, Ka Freddie, KaBobBob.  BobBob is also ka-dungis, as can be seen from his apron and shirt, and also seems to be ka-baho, because he's sporting some stubble, and looks to be in need of a good shave.  Nevertheless, BobBob looks to be a happy fellow.  He has a nice grin, and a 90s smiley pin on his torso to go with it.  His nice trucker's hat with a printed logo of a shawarma completes his look.

All of Bob's elements, except the carving knife that he's holding, are unique to this set.  His torso's a nice olive green color, and the apron is wonderfuly depicted through to his pants.  The back printing adds to the design detail.  Details like these are an added expense overall to the cost of product, but these same details transform a set (or a piece) from ordinary to awesome!

THE BUILD - Bag 3

The third bag gives us two minifigs and the body of the biplane.

The plane is obviously inspired by steampunk.  It's a straightforward build, and nothing really caught my attention while doing this part.  The biplane is completed by the fourth bag, and we'll get to reviewing the completed biplane after we're through with the minifigs.

The male fig is called Sudds Backwash.  Again, he's a unique fig, and only his leg element is commonly found in other sets.  His bowler hat, which first appeared in LBG with the Monster Fighter Sets back in 2012, and in black with the Businessman CMS in series 8, comes now in brown.  His moustache is a nice, neat handlebar; but it pales in comparison to the wonderful moustache that comes with the Getaway Glider.  His torso is very Victorian - a brown vest covering a white undershirt.  

This fig makes a compelling opportunity to MOC a Richard Collier fig from Somewhere In Time by replacing his head with that of first gen Superman's, like so:

All we need now is a Mrs. Scratchen-Post to play Elise McKenna and we're golden!

The second fig is Rootbeer Belle, a voluptuous - as far as minifigs go- barmaid.

Rootbeer Belle's torso lines up very well with her skirt/65 wedge 2x3.  Her corset's printing is well detailed, and the way that her chest is bundled tight makes her bosom appear well endowed.  I particularly like how the sequins on her torso and her skirt were depicted.  Her face is quite generic though, appearing in over 40 minifigs before her, but her hairpiece is much more rare:  this is the first time it's available in tan.  

I read in a review somewhere else that this is the first set, other than Friends, to come out in several years that has two female minifigs.  And the cool thing about this fig is that she isn't relegated to the background or to a damsel-in-distress role (although Executive Ellen is).  No, Rootbeer Belle is shown flying the biplane, as so:

Bag # 4 gives us the components to finish the biplane by adding two wings and the vertical stabilizer in the rear.  

On the whole, this plane is awesome.  It also doesn't make any sense.  Allow me to present to you the plane:

The most obvious thing you'll realize is that it is (or used to be) a western saloon.  Why even the front of the plane says that it used to be a saloon!

 The window shutters serve as both the rudder and the flaps, and there are remnants of bottles and glasses and dartboards scattered around, along with the handy cannon that's always good to have lying around.  

At the rear of the plane, you'll find Sudds on the piano providing the soundtrack to Belle's aerial adventures.

As you can see from the picture, its propeller's steam powered.  It seems that it's a turboprop engine.  Now, I don't know much about the mechanics of aerodynamics, but I'm quite certain that if a plane has a jet engine, the propeller becomes superfluous.  

This plane has a jet engine: 

And at the rear, you'll find two whips and two treasure chests that hold a bundle of dynamite.  The chest I got, however, seemed to always want to pop open, and the dynamite would dump out of the chest at odd moments of flight.

The entire plane seems like it's been cobbled together from an old western set.  While making the Getaway Glider felt like a tablescrap build, this biplane truly felt like a MOC made by cannibalizing existing sets.  Aside from the new window shutters, and some new colors on old pieces, there isn't really anything new with this plane.  This plane looks and feels like a MOC made by a 12 year-old.  It makes sense in only a way that a 12 year-old can make it make sense.  I mean, Belle uses a tap to steer the plane; the plane has propellers and jet engines; there's a piano at the rear; a pair of dartboards are on the wings, and window shutters serve as the rudder and flaps.  It's even flimsy like a MOC made by a 12-year old:

The wings are held together by a 2x2x2 support stand, and I don't know if it really has weak clutch power, or if it just isn't as stable as it should be.  The cannon is also mounted in an unstable manner.  It's ingenious, yes, and presents a new way to do it, but it's also prone to failure.

IMPRESSIONS

Much of my experience with the build, and following the instructions, was straightforward, and frankly left me unsatisfied.  I thought that the playability of the set suffered from the weakness of the wing elements and the lack of clutch power of some pieces.  It also seemed to me that the build was disorganized and haphazard.  The figs were well-detailed.  The plane and shawarma stand were also well-detailed, but seemed non-sensical to me.  The set's nice, for sure, as can be seen below - 

- but it looks like a hodgepodged theme.  I enjoyed the build, for sure, but it seemed to be a build truly suited for the indicated age range: 8 - 14, and looked like it.  For a short, short time, I felt like a young boy while building this.

And then I checked out the other sets in the Lego Movie line, and saw that some sets have alternate build options included in the instruction booklet.  This set isn't one of those.  But the shawarma stand looked ripe for an alt build, so I did one:

I have to tell you - it took me about 45 mins to get from the flying mode to shawarma shack mode.  I wanted to get all the elements in, because it's the details that make anything awesome, after all.  

I'm in no way a master builder or a master MOCcer.  I'm sure other people in my LUG (and elsewhere) can come up with a better looking build than this, but I'm happy with what I did.  I really am.  I'm really satisfied with this effort.  And I had a lot of fun figuring out how to make things work.  I felt synapses growing.

I was so happy that I decided to make an alt-build with the biplane, and try to make it into a saloon. 

Now, while the shawarma shack took less than an hour, the saloon took me about four hours to create.  I was limiting myself to the parts that were available from the biplane, and that was a HUGE handicap, given that I wanted to make a building, and I only had two 4x10s, 4 2x8s and 1 2x16 plates to make it work, plus five pairs of 4x2 wedge plates and about five pieces of assorted 4x2s and 2x3 plates.  And greebling elements - a lot of greebling elements.

I ended up with this:

I was able to appropriate a decorated wall, and a doorway, and a bar counter, and a piano area, and an eating area, plus...

There's a horse trough;

An established dining area;

Where Sudds can play music on his piano, and there's an area for 

Belle to prepare drinks as the bartender.

And the saloon is closed.

Over-all, on the balance, I had tremendous fun with this set.  I admit that I'm showing off with what I did.  And again, I know that what I made is far from the best possible permutation, but *dangnabit!* I like it!  And what's more, I'm proud of it.  I'm proud of it in the way that I was proud of the massive truck I did when I was 12 that beat all other trucks in our demolition derby.  I'm proud of it in the way that I'm proud of the MOC I did with the Black Mech Chess team in PHLUG.  I'm proud of me.  I feel special!

VERDICT

As a built set, this $40 (Php2.5k - 2.8k from local resellers, local retailer price unknown) doesn't pass muster.  Aside from the figs, there isn't too much of a collectible value here, as most elements of this set can be obtained through other sets.  The sets you can build with the instructions aren't awesome, but they're also not lame.  Steady lang, youknow?

For its price point, you get over 430 pieces, so it hits that magic, though hypothetical, value sweet spot of under 10¢.  The thing is, the elements are too varied and mixed for it to be a good source of MOC parts.  You have some white, some red, some yellow and a lot of brown.  

This is a good set to get for the kid who doesn't have that much Lego yet.  This is also a good set to get for the AFOL who likes to MOC, or for the AFOL who likes minifigs, or for the AFOL that likes steampunk, or for the AFOL that likes shawarma.  

But without a solid theme to back it up, this set is too mishmashed.  My recommendation is to wait for this to go on sale or clearance before you pick it up.  I had a lot of fun alt building this set, but I have to chalk that up to just playing with Lego how its meant to be played with - with my imagination.

But for a day and a half, I felt like I was a 12 year old again, and it was summer time, and it was 20 years ago, and all I had to do was play with Lego.