The Gimme LEGO Awards 2014

Yes - it's that time again! Welcome to the 2014 Gimme LEGO Awards and my annual trawl through the good, the bad and the ugly of the year viewed through LEGO spectacles. This is the fourth year I've presented the awards and as ever my selections are entirely subjective so please feel free to leave a comment if you violently disagree (or indeed agree...) with any of my selections. So here we go....

1. Best Theme

Last year's winner : Creator, including Creator Expert

2014 winner : The LEGO Movie

Yeah, I know - surprising, eh? I don't mind admitting that I winced when the LEGO Movie was annnounced - I feared that it'd be a car crash. I was similarly sniffy about the prospect of a raft of lazy tie-in sets which I assumed would target starry-eyed juveniles fresh out of the movie theatre and offer little in the way of originality or creativity. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Not only did the movie turn out to be a whole lot better than I had feared, but so far as the LEGO Movie sets themselves were concerned the lazy tie-ins for the most part failed to materialise and what we got instead was surprisingly good in the main.

The eye-catching flagship of the theme (both literally and metaphorically) was obviously Set 70810 Metalbeard's Sea Cow, but the reason that the LEGO Movie wins Best Theme this year isn't just about a couple of stand-out sets, it's instead a reflection of the number and diversity of quality sets at a variety of different price points. The roster of interesting and creative offerings starts at pocket money prices, and there's something worth having at pretty much every price point thereafter I reckon, including the likes of Set 70803 Cloud Cuckoo Palace, Set 70808 Super Cycle Chase, and of course Set 70816 Benny's Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP! which turned out to be one of the most talked-about sets of the year.

Unfortunately, the LEGO Movie set line up for 2015 is looking distinctly thin right now, with only three small sets on the horizon at time of writing; with the LEGO Movie sequel not due until 2017 this isn't altogether surprising. Let's just hope that LEGO is already preparing to impress us with another stellar line-up of tie-in sets in 2017.

Honourable mention : LEGO Ideas. From its humble origins as LEGO Cuusoo and the release of the Japan-only Set 21100 Shinkai 6500 Submarine, LEGO's crowd sourcing platform really exploded into the public consciousness over the past couple of years with the hugely successful Minecraft and Back to the Future DeLorean releases. I reckon that 2014 was the strongest year yet, with highlights including Pete Reid's Exo-Suit and Brent Waller's Ghostbusters Ecto-1, although I thought that all four 2014 LEGO Ideas releases had their merits. With Tom Poulsom's Birds project set to hit the shelves in early January, LEGO Ideas looks set to continue to be a source of diverse and at times quirky products, and long may that continue.

Honourable mention #2 : Mixels. Written off by some as just another cartoon tie-in, the Mixels have turned out to be a bona fide phenomenon. Some excellent creature designs, a nice selection of parts, and very competitive pricing have ensured that they've flown off the shelves from day one, and they seem to have captured the imaginations of younger builders and AFOLs alike. Although you have to wonder how long LEGO can continue to pump out new Mixel tribes with their own unique identities, people have been saying that about the Collectable Minifigures for years now and still they keep coming. Providing LEGO can keep the quality of designs high and the prices low there's no reason why the Mixels can't carry their success on into 2015.

2. Most Disappointing Theme

Last year's 'winner': Super Heroes

2014 'winner': Not awarded

You know what? There actually isn't a standout candidate this year in my opinion, so fair's fair - I'm not awarding the 'prize'. That having been said, there are undoubtedly a few themes whose 2014 report card might conceivably read "Could do better".... Last year's 'winner' was the Super Heroes theme, and if I'm honest there were still too many mediocre DC and Marvel Super Heroes sets released this year; that having been said, the theme was dragged up to a respectable level overall by a few genuinely decent offerings such as the excellent Set 76023 The Tumbler and the better-than-expected Guardians of the Galaxy sets. Elsewhere, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles offerings were a bit of a mash-mash, a situation not helped by the mixture of cartoon and movie sets in the line-up, but again the theme was saved by a few worthy efforts, particularly the Batcave-like Set 79117 Turtle Lair Invasion. Finally, LEGO's saturation of the market with what felt like a million Legends of Chima sets was neither subtle nor it seems particularly successful; even so, some of the Chima sets were pretty good - imaginative, well-designed and fun to build - so credit where credit's due.

3. The "Medieval Market Village" award for Best Non-Licensed Set

Last year's winner : Set 10232 Palace Cinema

2014 winner : Set 10243 Parisian Restaurant

Ho hum - another year, another Modular Building taking the non-licensed plaudits. Honestly, there's a danger that this category will end up having to be renamed 'The "Modular Building" award for Best Non-Licensed Set' at this rate. But what can you do? After all, while LEGO continue to release beautiful sets like the Parisian Restaurant I'm hardly going to just ignore them in order to give other sets a chance, am I? Let's therefore just sit back and rejoice at yet another wonderful addition to the Modular Building range.

What struck me first when I saw the pre-release publicity shots of the set was the colour scheme. The Modulars have frequently championed less common colours and the Parisian Restaurant is no exception with its predominantly olive green and dark blue colour scheme. This choice isn't just a gift for builders looking to bolster their stocks of elements in these colours either - I think the combination looks lovely. The next thing that struck me was just how much is crammed into the model - this isn't just a static display piece, it's a vibrant, detailed scene which captures an astonishing level of detail both inside and out. Honestly, every time I look at it my eyes are drawn to something different.

A characteristic feature of the Modular Buildings is their ingenious use of elements, often in the pursuit of architectural detail. Once again the Parisian Restaurant doesn't disappoint, as evidenced by the the sea shell and croissants on the roof (above) or any number of other lovely little touches worked into the design. To sum up, I think it's a beautiful model that's fun to build, packed with interesting elements and rare colours, overflowing with detail, and a tutorial in advanced and ingenious building techniques to boot. At £132.99 / US$159.99 / €149.99 for 2,469 pieces it's even reasonably priced. Stunning.

Honourable Mention : Set 31021 Furry Creatures. OK, so this Creator 3-in-1 set was never realistically going to win the award, not against the Parisian Restaurant or even other stand-out non-licensed offerings such as Set 10244 Fairground Mixer or Set 21109 Exo-Suit. But few 2014 sets have this much personality or indeed the ability to make me smile like this one does - the startled-looking mouse alone never fails to crack me up. This has been a good year for cartoon-styled sets, with seasonal offerings such as Set 40090 Halloween Bat and Set 40092 Reindeer nicely complementing the Creator 3-in-1 animal sets. Set 31031 Rainforest Animals looks set to continue the trend in 2015, and I for one can't wait for more.

Other contenders: Set 21009 Exo-Suit, Set 10244 Fairground Mixer.


4. Best Licensed Set

Last year's winner : Set 10236 Ewok Village

2014 winner: Set 70810 Metalbeard's Sea Cow

Similar to last year this was a fiercely contested category with a lot of outstanding licensed contenders vying for the prize. Ultimately, however, the decision wasn't too hard, with one set rising above its peers to claim the win. I built and reviewed the Sea Cow back in June and thought then that it was pretty much nailed on for the Best Licensed Set award; while the appearance of the Tumbler in November at least made a contest of it, the Sea Cow still gets my vote.

Prior to sitting down and writing this, I spent a few moments re-examining the Sea Cow model which is still built and on display in my house. I then took a quick look back at the review I wrote 6 months ago. The review is pretty gushing, using words like "spectacular", "remarkable" and "stunning", but I can confirm that those words ring as true now as they did then - the Sea Cow is a special set and deserves all the plaudits that I can throw at it.

The first thing you notice is just how huge it is - more than half a metre tall and around 60 cm long. What's remarkable is that seemingly every bit of space inside and out is crammed with little details - in the review I likened it to the kind of attention to detail that'd you'd generally only find lavished on the modular buildings. It's also incredibly quirky, the Steampunk-inspired fusion of olde worlde galleon with more modern machinery and weapons making for an at-times bizarre spectacle. And yet despite this the finished model just works, unlike some previous left-field experiments that I could mention (Time Cruisers I'm looking at you....).

Another thing worth highlighting is just how much fun it is to build; there's an almost organic feel to some sections and the build is never dull. There's an interesting selection of elements used, including a few which are unique to the set, and a number of interesting building techniques are showcased - construction of the sails using Technic panels is ingenious, as is the use of minifigure whips for ornamental detailing, to provide just a couple of examples.

While summing up my thoughts on Set 10236 Ewok Village which was my Best Licensed Set in the 2013 Gimme LEGO Awards, I made the point that such sets are a reminder that the LEGO company are still willing to take commercial risks in order to give their fans incredible products. This is doubly true for the Sea Cow which doesn't even have the Star Wars juggernaut behind it. For what it's worth, I'd rate the Sea Cow ahead of the Ewok Village - it's that good.

Honourable Mention : Set 76023 The Tumbler 

Rumours of a UCS Tumbler were doing the rounds for a while before the set was finally announced; I have to admit that I didn't give the rumours much credence which shows how much I know.... When The Tumbler did eventually appear in November it didn't disappoint - it's huge, incredibly detailed and immediately recognisable. Interestingly, the set seems to have caught the eye of people who I wouldn't necessarily credit with being LEGO fans - a couple of friends of mine have bought it despite having not built a LEGO model for years, and the set has received extensive media coverage well beyond the usual LEGO-friendly media. Spectacular.

Other contenders : Set 70816 Benny's Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP!, Set 21108 Ghostbusters Ecto-1, Set 71006 The Simpsons House, Set 75059 Sandcrawler.


5. The "Phantom Menace" Award for Most Disappointing Set

Last year's winner : Set 76008 Iron Man vs. The Mandarin: Ultimate Showdown

2014 winner: Set 76014 Spider-Trike vs. Electro

Oh no - not again.... Having served up the 'winner' and the runner up in this category last year, the Super Heroes theme has somehow managed to achieve an ignominious double by grabbing the worst set award for the second year running - for shame!

You know, I get that minifigures are big business, and that for (presumably) licensing reasons LEGO can't release the minifigures on their own. I also appreciate that the set designers didn't have much budget left to play with after the cost of the minifigures had been accounted for. But a Spider-Trike? Really?! It's not even cool looking - it almost seems as if LEGO have gone for the "designed by a 5-year old" look in order to be consistent with the 5-12 age rating on the front of the box. Lest anyone forget, Spiderman can negotiate whole city blocks in moments by spinning webs and swinging from skyscraper to skyscraper. And yet he gets a Spider-Trike. That's just rubbish, and if you can't see why then I despair.

(Dis)honourable mentions: Set 21107 The End and Set 21117 Ender Dragon. Just to be clear, I don't have an issue with Minecraft - I played it for a couple of weeks in the name of research and quite enjoyed it, and I'm perfectly happy to encourage my youngster's enthusiasm for it. I also liked most of the Minecraft microscale sets, and I've bought a few of the minifigure-scale Minecraft sets as Christmas presents. Be assured, therefore, that my scorn for Set 21107 The End isn't ideological, just a reflection of the fact that I think it looks a bit rubbish. And Set 21117 Ender Dragon looks even worse, a rare misstep in what is otherwise a decent first wave of minifigure scale Minecraft sets.

6. Best Minifigure

Last year's winner : Tonto

2014 winner : Itchy and Scratchy

Perhaps the most subjective judgement of all, the 'Best Minifigure' award is increasingly hard to judge because the quality of LEGO's minifigures has become simply extraordinary over the past few years. Consequently, the choice is increasingly driven by more intangible factors rather than any objective measure. With all that in mind I'm going for a joint award this year, and Itchy and Scratchy get the nod. Although I do think they look great, they didn't win because they're particularly detailed - there are a host of other 2014 minifigures which feature more intricate and beautiful printing - nor indeed because they're an outstanding likeness of the subject matter. They basically win because my heart filled with joy the moment I liberated them from their foil packs, spied their mischievous expressions and set them loose on each other, and I still grin every time I see them.

Honourable Mention : Green Classic Spaceman. For me, one of the best stories of 2014 was the success of Pete Reid's Exo-Suit on LEGO Ideas, Mark Stafford's sympathetically designed retail version of the model, and the enormous buzz that surrounded the launch of the set. While the Exo-Suit itself came out really well, the icing on the cake was the inclusion of a pair of never-previously-seen green Classic Spacemen - fan service simply doesn't come any better than that.

Other contenders : Collectable Minifigures Series 12 Piggy Guy, The LEGO Movie Benny


7. The "Better than Expected" Award

Last year's winner : The Lone Ranger theme

2014 winner : The LEGO Movie

Given all my comments earlier on in this post, I guess that the recipient of this award is no surprise to anybody; while it might have been nice to try and spread the awards around a bit more, any other choice in this category would have been absurd.

Similar to the Lone Ranger theme last year, my expectations for the LEGO Movie itself, not to mention the sets based on the movie, were pretty low. To say that what we ultimately got was a pleasant surprise is therefore a gross understatement; it speaks volumes that I'm disappointed that as previously stated we're only getting three small LEGO Movie sets among the first wave of 2015 releases.

Honourable Mention : LEGO Star Wars Microfighters sets. These pocket-money sets featuring chibi-style renditions of iconic Star Wars vehicles complete with a minifigure looked faintly ridiculous in the publicity shots. The minifigures were absurdly oversized for the models, and it felt a bit like another cynical attempt to shoe-horn minifigures into unsuitable sets. Except that when I took the plunge, built and reviewed one of them (you can find the review here) I couldn't help but like it.... Clearly I wasn't alone as a second wave of Microfighters sets are incoming for 2015, and I'll likely be getting them.

Honourable Mention #2 : Guardians of the Galaxy sets.  Given the extent to which the Marvel and DC Super Heroes sets have blotted their copybook over the past couple of years I was fully expecting the Guardians of the Galaxy sets to follow the tried and trusted formula of rubbish models used as an excuse to release a bunch of minifigures to a ravenous fanbase. What we actually got was nothing of the sort, though - all three retail sets were decent, particularly the largest of them which I reviewed here. A nice reminder that LEGO can still design worthwhile System scale Super Heroes sets as well as just excellent minifigures.

8. Most Welcome LEGO-Related Announcement

Last year's winner : Peter Reid's Exo Suit to be the next Cuusoo Set

2014 Winner : UCS Slave 1 incoming

LEGO have been drip-feeding us with Star Wars UCS sets since 1999, generally a couple per year. Up until now, however, there's been a massive Slave 1-shaped hole in the UCS line-up; given the iconic nature of the ship, not to mention the perfectly manageable scale and technical feasibility of the design task, the lack of a Slave 1 has been a baffling and frustrating omission. Until now, that is - the wrong will soon be righted with the imminent arrival of a UCS version of Boba Fett's Slave 1. What's more, I've been lucky enough to get my hands on a pre-release copy of the set (review here) and I'm delighted to report that it's superb. So any chance of a UCS A-wing next, or even an AT-AT....? :-)  

Honourable mention : Birds to be made into a LEGO Ideas set. Granted LEGO Ideas has spawned a number of desirable sets to date, but I know I'm not alone in bemoaning the preponderance of licensed creations on the platform. I'm all for LEGO versions of some classic I.P's, but not to the exclusion of everything else; it's almost as if a generation of builders has lost the ability to come up with their own original ideas. It was therefore gratifying when Tom Poulsom's Birds project hit 10,000 votes on LEGO Ideas and got the greenlight for production. The resulting set, which will be available in early January 2015, consists of three beautifully-designed models of birds, and there isn't a licensed I.P. in sight. More original concepts like Birds and the Exo-Suit please, LEGO.

Honourable mention #2: Jurassic World sets announced. I love dinosaurs, and I love LEGO dinosaur sets. I can't get enough of them. Imagine my joy, therefore, at the announcement that LEGO have signed up to create sets based upon the upcoming Jurassic World movie. Hopefully LEGO will also go back in time and give us some Jurassic Park sets while they're about it.... LEGO Jurassic World sets will hit the stores in May 2015, with the movie arriving in theatres in June.

9. Gimme LEGO Reader's Choice Award

Last year's winner: Set 10236 Ewok Village

2014 winner: you tell me....

Now it's your turn. At the top of the page on the right of the screen you'll see a list of what I consider to be eleven of the best sets of 2014. Please vote for your favourite; if your pick isn't on the list then select 'None of the above' and leave a comment or send me a message via the contact button above the list letting me know which set you think should win the prize. Cast your votes - one person, one vote - and at midnight on 15th January the poll will close and we'll have our winner.... If you're on a smartphone or similar and can't see the poll then click "view web version" at the bottom of the page in order to see the nominations and cast your vote.

*Update* Voting has now closed and you can see the results here.

Previous Gimme LEGO Awards : 2013, 2012, 2011

Sea Cow review - the finale !

Last time on Gimme LEGO I kicked off my review of Set 70810 MetalBeard's Sea Cow with a close look at the packaging, minifigures and accessory models; if you missed it then you can get caught up here.

After all the time spent assembling and photographing minifigs and other accoutrements it was nice to get to work on the Sea Cow itself. I commented last time on the generous selection of unusual elements to be found in the Queasy Kitty (above) and MetalBeard brick-built characters, and if that was liable to quicken the pulse of afficionados of uncommon and/or interesting elements then the Sea Cow's parts palette will surely send them into paroxyms of ecstasy.... You can see a selection of the less common elements utilised in the construction of the Sea Cow in the picture below (click to enlarge); all of these elements have graced 10 sets or less to date, a good number of them have only previously appeared in one or two sets, and a couple of them are unique to the Sea Cow. There's loads of dark brown to go with the more common reddish brown, plus a liberal sprinkling of pearl gold, flat silver and dark red.

The first stage of the Sea Cow build (pictures below - click to enlarge) is a relatively lengthy affair involving the construction of the hull and lower deck. Regrettably, much of the hull is made up of large, dark brown prefabricated elements (they're the first three elements you can see in the picture above) bolted together with Technic pins to make one serious lump of plastic. My aversion to POOP has been well documented here and here, and building the hull out of these prefab monstrosities did nothing to challenge my prejudices. I accept that use of regular elements to construct the hull would have increased the part count and price somewhat, but on an AFOL-oriented set like this I think it would have been the right thing to do. Anyway, I digress.... Once the hull has been laid down, the lower deck is populated with six pearl dark grey cannons; these protrude from the lower part of the hull and are mounted on cannon bases which afford them a limited range of up/down movement. The Sea Cow has two large anchors which are attached by chains to a capstan; the black Technic axle you can see sticking upwards in the pictures below inserts into the capstan and you can raise and lower the anchors by rotating the axle; a deck-top structure will eventually cover up the bare axle, greatly improving the appearance but preserving the functionality. Another notable aspect of this stage of the build is the construction of the large rear propeller and the prominent and rather over-the-top rudder.

The single bag of elements numbered with a '4' is all that's required for the next stage of construction. This involves building up the sides of the hull and decorating the exterior with a bling-tastic selection of pearl gold and flat silver elements including 16 flat silver Technic pin connectors which I assume are supposed to represent mini-cannons of some sort. Both sides of the ship feature prominent semi-circular cut-aways, and we'll see how these are filled later on. Progress is rapid and straightforward, and you can see the results below (click pictures to enlarge).

Construction of the ship's prow (the foremost part of the bow above the waterline) and stern plus the fore and aft decks comes next and requires the contents of the two bags marked with a '5'. The prow and stern are elegantly constructed, consisting of rows of reddish brown curved 4 x 1 slopes arranged side by side on 6 x 6 plates which are themselves held in position sideways so that the slopes face outwards and produce a pleasing curved contour as you can see in the pictures below. The decks are made up of a patchwork of reddish brown and black plates; once they've been dropped into place a 16L axle pierces the foredeck; this will form the core of the foremast. Finally, 8 trans dark blue boat studs are strategically attached to the underside of the hull; these serve to reinforce the joins between different parts of the hull and rudder and also presumably reduce friction in case anyone decides to slide the model around on the floor.

There are two bags marked with a '6', and the parts within are used to build the first level of the towering structure at the back of the vessel (pictures below - click to enlarge). This has walls which are angled via the use of hinge plates and which incorporate large windows; the lower part of the windows feature a cross-hatched leaded effect which is achieved with the use of stickers which attach to the window panes. Accurate placement of these stickers is important - if you make a mistake and have to remove and reapply one or more stickers then the affected window or windows take on a cloudy appearance, so handle with care.... Detailing above the arched entrance is provided by the unorthodox use of a pair of reddish brown whips, while at the back there are a host of interesting details including a couple of propellers, ornate multi-level lamps and even a pair of wings....

There's further detailing inside this section - as you can see from the official LEGO close-up below, the main interior feature appears to be some sort of steam regulation device, complete with a valve, pearl gold taps and some pearl gold spyglasses which pass for pipes. The 'steam room' also contains a chandelier hanging from the ceiling and a barrel containing swords and muskets

Picture (c) 2014 LEGO Group

The contents of the three generously-stuffed bags marked with a '7', plus a huge 20 stud high one-piece boat mast from the unmarked bag, are needed for the next stage of the build. This involves construction of the captain's cabin on top of the 'steam room', and an upper deck on top of that. The exterior is very ornate, once again featuring an abundance of pearl gold detailing, lattice windows and numerous neat little touches.

We get another propeller at the rear, the designers presumably deciding that the three other rear propellers already in place weren't enough, and the name of the vessel is spelled out by a couple of stickers attached to curved 4 x 1 slopes beneath the propeller. I hate STAMPS so it's nice that "SEA" and COW" stickers are individually attached one to each 4 x 1 slope rather than a single sticker spanning both. The ship's wheel sits on the roof of the captain's cabin, behind which is what looks suspiciously like a large dark red armchair; this presumably enables MetalBeard to steer his ship in comfort.... Behind the armchair is a small, semi-circular rear observation deck (known as a poop deck, I believe) from which the rear mast rises. Sails are provided in the form of curved white Technic panels; when I first saw publicity shots of the model I was dubious of LEGO's decision to use these rather than the cloth sails of old, and I still think that cloth sails would have looked better BUT I have to admit that the Technic panels work better than I'd expected; they furthermore have the advantage over cloth sails of being less fiddly to install, more robust and hard-wearing, and a lot cheaper to replace in the unlikely event that you'd ever need to do so.

The interior of the captain's cabin is a joy to behold - it's literally packed with features and details such as a globe, sextant, paintings, charts, blueprints of the ship, a ship in a bottle and a treasure chest to name just a few. The charts, blueprints and paintings consist of stickers applied to tiles of various sizes and colours. The shame of it is that all this incredible detail is basically hidden from view once you've completed this section of the build; even so, you'll know it's there, and it'll hopefully give you a warm fuzzy feeling knowing how much care and attention the designers have lavished on the model. You can hopefully get a flavour of the level of detail from the promo shot below.

Picture (c) 2014 LEGO Group

I'm starting to feel like I'm on the home straight as I pour out the contents of the two bags marked with an '8', grab a few more large elements from the unmarked bag, and start work on the forecastle, foremast and bowsprit (guess who had to take a crash course in galleon anatomy to write this review...?). One of the first tasks is to build what looks like a boiler on the foredeck; the boiler is basically a cylinder made up of a stack of light bley 2 x 2 round bricks with grille flanked by a couple of valves. The boiler slides down onto the shorter of the two axles sticking up from the foredeck which as previously described is attached to the ship's capstan; in this way the anchors can be raised and lowered by rotating the boiler. Construction of the foremast comes next, complete with a substantial gun emplacement halfway up and eight sails once again made up of white Technic panels of various sizes.

The bowsprit is the substantial spar projecting forward from the ship's prow. As well as accommodating three more sails, it's noteworthy for the presence of a winged cow complete with pearl gold horns (below - click to enlarge) - every galleon needs a figurehead, after all, even if it's not usually bovine....

The last stage of the build involves construction of the main mast plus the ship's funnel and the prominent twin turbines that fit into the semi-circular cut-aways on both sides of the vessel. This requires the contents of the two bags marked with a '9' and the remaining elements in the unmarked bag. As you can see from the pictures below the main mast is absolutely enormous and the designers deserve considerable credit for ensuring that the whole thing doesn't come crashing down at the slightest provocation; the weight of the 16 sails alone made me wonder whether it would be horribly unstable, but it's deceptively robust and the mast complete with the section of deck and fittings can be carried around surpringly easily without breaking.

Once again there are a host of neat little details, some of which are hidden from sight in the finished model; these include a couple of secret compartments beneath the main mast containing a rat, a skull, a golden goblet and some gems. The funnel (below), while obviously dwarfed by the main mast, is also quite sizeable and sits atop a small furnace.

The section of deck complete with main mast, funnel and twin turbines slots into the mid-section of the vessel as you can see below, and the model is finished. I think the completed model looks majestic - enormous, wonderfully imaginative, packed with interesting details and features and impossible to ignore.

You can see the finished Sea Cow model plus all the minifigures, brick-built characters and other bits and pieces in the picture below (click to enlarge). It's hard to truly convey the sheer size of the finished ship, but hopefully the picture will at least go some way towards providing a sense of scale, showing as it does how the minifigures are completely dwarfed by the enormity of the ship.

The Sea Cow is a remarkable and spectacular model which has completely wowed me. I'm a fan of the Steampunk aesthetic which certainly helps, but I'd still defy anyone not to be impressed with the finished build. First and foremost it's huge - much bigger than I expected. Then there's the attention to detail both inside and out which frequently rivals that lavished on LEGO's revered modular buildings. One of the things I like most about the model is how quirky it looks; its higgeldy-piggledy appearance brings to mind a maritime version of The Burrow from the Harry Potter movies, and the designers appear have been given free reign to literally run riot, resulting in one of the most unusual, creative and over-the-top official models I've ever built. The icing on the cake is the relative lack of hype and expectation that preceded its release; similar to 2012's wonderful Haunted House this set almost seemed to come out of nowhere, and I therefore didn't approach it with unrealistically lofty expectations. Bottom line : the Sea Cow is stunning - my set of the year so far.

Set 70810 MetalBeard's Sea Cow contains 2741 pieces and retails for £169.99 / US$249.99 which is I think is pretty reasonable considering the part count. The set is a LEGO Exclusive which means it'll be a challenge to get hold of it at a decent discount, but despite that I still wholeheartedly recommend it - if you find another official set this year even half as much fun to build and as impressive to behold then I'll be surprised.... Hats off to LEGO, then - I think it was very brave of them to give the go-ahead to a niche set of this size and ambition, and I just hope it sells enough copies to ensure that they don't regret their decision....

Holy Cow !

For me, the LEGO Movie has been a revelation, serving up up one surprise after another. The first surprise was that LEGO should dive into the murky world of Hollywood and get behind a big-budget movie at all; the next surprise was that the movie turned out to be actually rather good, and that was followed by amazement that it did so well at the box office (not far short of half a billion dollars worldwide so far, according to Variety). Then there was surprise that many of the first wave of LEGO Movie tie-in sets were genuinely worth buying. But perhaps the biggest surprise of all was the news that LEGO were planning to release a huge and expensive reproduction of MetalBeard's bonkers Steampunk-inspired Sea Cow galleon from the LEGO Movie. My immediate reaction was to wonder who on earth the target market was supposed to be, but once I'd seen the publicity photographs, learned that the set would contain over 2,700 parts, and started to drool, I realised that the target market was presumably me.... I splashed the cash soon after the set's release, bringing home a copy following a trip to the Sheffield LEGO brand store. I tend to sit on sets for ages before building them (metaphorically, of course - I hate to damage the boxes), but in this case I was compelled to crack on and build it without delay.

I initially intended this review to be just one post, but it soon became clear that there would be too much to squeeze into a single post so I decided to split it - packaging, minifigures, brick-built characters and accessory models in this instalment, and the Sea Cow herself next time. My review may contain spoilers, so if you've not seen the LEGO Movie yet then you might want to consider watching it before reading this....

The box is big and heavy - the same width and height as the massive Sydney Opera House box but not as deep. The front of the box (above - click to enlarge) carries the standard LEGO Movie branding and features an exciting action shot of the Sea Cow model pitching on a stormy sea with all the other components of the set (characters and models) posed on and around it. There's also a triangular boxout in the bottom right corner which highlights the six minifigures and brick-built characters contained within the set, and text reminding us that "The ship does not float".... The back of the box (below) shows the Sea Cow from behind; there's also a small boxout revealing that the completed Sea Cow model is 58 cm long and 61 cm high, and a series of pictures highlighting a selection of the set's play features.

Having taken a close look at the box it was time to dive in and inspect the contents, so I cut the three tape seals which keep the end flap closed and peered inside. The box contains a whopping 17 bags of elements; all but one of the bags is printed with a number between 1 and 9, and most of the bags contain at least one smaller bag of elements. In addition to all the bags of parts there are five large dark brown hull pieces floating around loose inside the box. There's only one instruction booklet, but it's huge, sealed in a bag with a cardboard backing to keep it flat and neat. There's a single DSS (below); it's fairly small but still manages to accommodate 23 stickers.

The instruction booklet (cover below) is a veritable brick; not since building Set 10179 Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon and Set 10188 Death Star do I recall an instruction booklet of such heft. It's close to A4 sized, and contains 292 pages from cover to cover. The booklet uses a similar style of binding to the Ghostbusters 30th Anniversary set that I recently reviewed over at Brickset, and I'm sorry to report that I experienced exactly the same problem with it as I did with the Ghostbusters booklet, namely pages falling out after minimal use. As a collector as well as a builder, instruction booklets falling to pieces after minimal use is unacceptable to me; I'll be informing LEGO Customer Service, and if anyone else is similarly affected then I'd urge you to do the same so that LEGO realise there's a potential issue with their new binding method.

The build is broken into nine stages, and the numbering on the bags of parts shows which stage the contents are needed for. The first 3 pages of the instruction booklet (example page below - click to enlarge) show what you'll be building at each stage and also indicate how many bags of parts there are for each stage - the first time I've noticed this in an instruction booklet. A total of 282 pages are dedicated to the building instructions themselves, with the rest of the booklet taken up by a 4-page inventory of parts, a couple of pages of advertising for other LEGO Movie sets and the LEGO Movie video game, and the customary call on the back cover for feedback via an online LEGO survey.

As you might expect with a recently-released set of this size there's a generous selection of relatively uncommon parts included, although outside of the minifigures there are only a few actually unique to the set - a reddish brown 1 x 12 x 3 raised arch, a flat silver curved 2 x 1 slope with no studs, and a pearl gold unprinted minifigure head. I'll flag some of the other less common parts as we go along.

There's only a single bag numbered with a '1', and it contains the parts needed to build Emmet, Wyldstyle, Queasy Kitty and MetalBeard. The version of Emmet in this set has only previously appeared in polybag Set 30280 The Piece of Resistance, although that having been said, the torso, legs and hair are common to all versions of Emmet and this version only differs from most others by virtue of his front and back-printed facial expressions which you can see in the pictures below. Emmet comes complete with a light bley neck bracket, to which his Piece of Resistance attaches; I've photographed him without his neck bracket or Piece of Resistance in the second picture below so his torso backprint is visible.

The set includes Wyldstyle with her hood down (below); this variant has appeared in a total of three sets to date including this one.

Queasy Kitty is unique to this set and contains a whole bunch of uncommon elements, some of which have never previously appeared elsewhere. The sand green 1 x 3 brick with the printed queasy cat face pattern is predictably unique to this set, as is the sand green 1 x 3 arch, the sand green unicorn horn, the white tail with yellowish green printing on the sides, and the yellowish green 1 x 1 and 1 x 3 plates. While not unique to the set, the yellowish green 1 x 1 round plate, the olive green 1 x 1 plate, and the sand green 1 x 3 plate have only previously featured in 2, 3 and 5 sets respectively. Good luck trying to build Queasy Kitty out of your existing elements, therefore, or even trying to source the parts from Bricklink....

MetalBeard (below) is also a veritable treat for afficionados of uncommon elements, being made up of a host of new and/or hard to find parts. These include a few dark brown 1 x 2 plates, a light bley 1 x 1 tile with keyhole pattern, MetalBeard's pearl dark grey minifig head holder, and a couple of dark orange 18 degree 2 x 1 x 2/3 slopes with 4 Slots, all of which have only appeared in one other set to date.  In addition to these, there are further elements which have only previously appeared in a handful of sets at most. These include a dark bley grappling hook, a couple of dark orange 45 degree 2 x 1 slopes, reddish brown 1 x 1 bricks with studs on two sides, reddish brown left and right 3 x 2 wedge plates, some of the new modified 1 x 2 plates with ball/receptable, and a flat silver 10L propeller blade used for MetalBeard's sword, to mention just a few. To describe MetalBeard as utterly bizarre would be a gross understatement, but it'll have to do in the absence of anything better; my personal highlight is the brick-built shark attached to his right wrist ! This version of MetalBeard is probably a little more than half the height of the more detailed version to be found in Set 70807 MetalBeard's Duel, although there are a number of common features such as his head, the dark bley parrot, and the treasure chest affixed to his torso complete with 1 x 1 tile printed with a keyhole pattern.

There are two bags numbered with a '2'. These contain the parts needed to build Benny and Vitruvius plus Emmet's double decker couch and a couple of Micro Managers. As a very long-time fan of LEGO's Classic Space sets of the late 1970's and early 1980's I was looking forward to getting my hands on Benny and you can see him below. Benny is currently unique to this set, although he'll be appearing in some form in Set 70816 Benny's Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP! which is starting to appear at retail even as I type this. The character of Benny is of course based upon the spaceman minifigures which accompanied LEGO's Classic Space sets of the late 70's and 80's; Broken chin straps on their helmets and faded torso prints were a common problem back in the day, and LEGO have cleverly simulated these defects in Benny's design, thus guaranteeing to win the hearts of anyone who owned any of those original Classic Space sets. Benny's helmet, torso and reversible headprint have yet to appear elsewhere, although his airtanks are the same as those which used to grace the Spacemen of old.

Vitruvius has only previously appeared in Set 70809 Lord Business' Evil Lair, another LEGO Movie offering that I reviewed over at Brickset; a different version of the minifigure will apparently accompany the upcoming Blu-Ray release of The LEGO Movie in some geographies. I commented in my Brickset review that Vitruvius looks like "an old hippy in a tie-dye T-shirt and jeans wearing a white bathrobe" and I still think that's pretty much spot on. Those ghostly eyes still give me the creeps, although I do love his sparkly cloak which is thus far unique to Vitruvius.

Once the minifigures and brick-built characters have been assembled it's time to get to work on Emmet's double decker couch. It's a pretty safe bet that if you haven't seen the movie you'll be scratching your head at this point wondering what the hell a double decker couch is doing in this set, but then if you haven't seen the movie then you'll probably be scratching your head at pretty much everything else as well I guess.... The couch (below - click to enlarge) is a fairly simple build; it utilises a couple of reddish brown 7 x 3 ladders in its construction, previously only available in three sets, but otherwise avoids the use of any particularly uncommon parts. I did wonder whether I'd built it wrong as once completed it's not possible to position the ladders fully vertically, but seemingly not.

There are two Micro Managers included with the set, and you can see them below (click picture to enlarge). I've photographed the bigger one on a display stand (not included in the set) as it can't be posed upright otherwise. They look decidedly menacing despite being in essence just a couple of black boxes; this is in large part down to their articulated forward-facing arms, which in the case of the larger Micro Manager in particular look pretty lethal. The smaller Micro Manager just about accommodates a black 10 x 10 string net; this is fired forwards by a simple mechanism consisting of a Technic axle protruding from the rear which you push vigorously to launch the net. The larger Micro Manager features retractable side panels, attached to which are a pair of flick-fire missiles, and a radar dish which can be rotated upwards and backwards.

With all the minifigures, brick-built characters and accessory models completed, only the Sea Cow remains. I'll review the Sea Cow in my next posting, as well as providing my overall verdict on the set, so farewell until then.

                                                                                               Sea Cow review, Part 2 --->