Tag: Review (Page 59 of 85)

LEGO Seasonal Christmas Snowman (40093) Review

October 3, 2014 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 1 Comment

Yesterday, we did our first of two LEGO Christmas Seasonal sets with the Reindeer (40092). The other Christmas set for the year is the Snowman (40093). The set has 140 pieces and retails for $9.99 for a really good $0.07/piece. The 140 pieces is the second most among the Seasonal creatures for 2014. The box has a small instructions booklet and two un-numbered bags.

The building of the LEGO Seasonal Christmas Snowman (40093) is pretty straightforward. You start building the base of the Snowman which is pretty bland. Once you get through that and you start the details, he’ll start coming together quickly. When the body is complete, you build the head which is pretty much the same as the body but a little smaller. It has a orange cone for the nose and a horn piece to represent the mouth. You can flip it either way to have him have a smile or a sad face. Some accessories that the Snowman has is the top hat and a broom.

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The LEGO Seasonal Christmas Snowman (40093) makes a great final set to finish out the year of these buildable creatures. Like with the Reindeer set, LEGO has gone with a generic snowman due to legality issues but it does have some references to the popular children’s character, Frosty the Snowman such as the broom, hat, and orange nose.

Again, it is now available at LEGO Brand Stores and on Shop@Home for $9.99. Like with the Reindeer set, the LEGO Seasonal Christmas Snowman (40093) makes … Continue

LEGO Seasonal Christmas Reindeer (40092) Review

October 2, 2014 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 0 Comments

Although it’s only the beginning of October, it’s still not too early to talk about Christmas and the holidays. As of yesterday, the new LEGO Seasonal items are now available and these also include the buildable creatures that LEGO has been releasing throughout the year. Here we have the first of two creatures that are focused around Christmas and that is the LEGO Seasonal Christmas Reindeer (40092). It contains 139 pieces and retails for $9.99 which is a great $0.07/piece. The Reindeer is the third largest of the 2014 buildable Seasonal creatures, by piece count, behind the Halloween Bat (40090) and the Christmas Snowman (40093) which we will be review next.

LEGO Seasonal Christmas Reindeer (40092)

Like with pretty much every other Seasonal character so far, the box has two un-numbered bags and a small instructions booklet. The build starts at the feet where the Reindeer has hinged plates to move the legs. Building continues up the body where the arms are also on hinged plates. The middle of the body has a 1×2 brick with cross hole so you can attach either of the presents to the body so give the illusion of the Reindeer holding them. After that, you build the head with it wearing a Christmas hat. The ears also have some movement in front of the antlers.

Like I mentioned before, there are two presents, one large and one small, with TECHNIC pin protruding from the backside. This allows you got attach either to the body of the Reindeer to make him hold it.

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One of … Continue

LEGO Seasonal Thanksgiving Turkey (40091) Review

October 1, 2014 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 2 Comments

It’s the beginning of October and that means that the new LEGO Seasonal items are now available including some buildable creatures that represent the holidays. The first of the final three for 2014 is the Thanksgiving Turkey (40091). This particular set contains 125 pieces and like its predecessors, it retails for $9.99.

LEGO Seasonal Thanksgiving Turkey (40091)

The box contains two un-numbered bags and the instructions booklet. Like all the other creatures, the Turkey is pretty simple to build with not much difficulty. It has some basic articulation in the arms and legs as well as the mouth. The “feathers” in the back uses some 1×2 hinged plates and 2×4 angled plate to create the look of it. Finally, the Turkey also wears a pilgrim’s hat.

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Overall, the LEGO Seasonal Thanksgiving Turkey (40091) continues the line of creatures that have been released so far in 2014. It is now available at LEGO Stores and on Shop@Home. If you’ve been collecting these guys, I do recommend adding it to your collection. My next review for the LEGO Seasonal characters will be the Christmas Reindeer (40092) and it should be up later this week.

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Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

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Brick Flicks: 60 Iconic Movie Scenes and Posters to Make From LEGO Book Review

September 26, 2014 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 0 Comments

This morning, I found an interesting package on my porch. I don’t remember ordering anything so I wasn’t exactly sure what it was. I opened the box and was surprised it came from Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. which is the same publisher for a few books that I’ve recently reviewed, Brick City: Global Icons to Make from LEGO and Brick Wonders: Ancient, Modern, and Natural Wonders Made from LEGO. The latest book from LEGO artist Warren Elsmore is called Brick Flicks: 60 Iconic Movie Scenes and Posters to Make From LEGO. The book has 160 fully-illustrated pages and retails for $18.99. Like with Warren’s previous books, the cover is a nice mix of hard and softback and it shows a film roll with a couple of iconic scenes from E.T. and The Shining in LEGO form.

Brick Flicks: 60 Iconic Movie Scenes and Posters to Make From LEGO

The book is separated into four chapters and are categorized in different movie themes: Sci-Fi and Horror, Drama and Classics, Action and Adventure, and Comedy and Musicals. The introduction talks about why Warren took on this project and how he captured the scenes.

To get the LEGO scene as close to their real-life counterpart, Warren has hired Minifigs.me to create custom minifigures for the scenes in the book. By using custom minifigures, it allows him to capture the details and expressions of the minifigures as they are portrayed in the movies.

Brick Flicks continues to show movie scenes that you can easily recognize from just by looking at it. Each movie gets a two-page spread which includes a … Continue

Brick Wonders: Ancient, Modern, and Natural Wonders Made from LEGO Book Review

September 25, 2014 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 0 Comments

Continuing with another book review from Warren Elsore, we have Brick Wonders: Ancient, Modern, and Natural Wonders Made from LEGO. The book is a sequel to the best-seller Brick City: Global Icons to Make from LEGO which we have also reviewed. Like the previous book, it contains 256 fully illustrated pages and it retails for $19.99. Also, the cover is a mix of a hard and softback in a sense that it is not a full hardback but soft enough to bend a little.

The first chapter of the book follows its predecessor where it talks about the history of LEGO, where to buy bricks, building tips, LEGO design software, so on and so forth. There is some information about sorting and storing of your LEGO bricks and online resources you can use to help you build.

In a little different format than the previous book, Brick Wonders has the chapters that are categorized into types of wonders in the world including the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Historic Wonders, Modern Wonders, and Natural Wonders.

Like his previous book, there are lots of photos of Warren’s highly detailed builds along with an informative description of the what the subject is about. Included in the chapters are some builds that you can build using the instructions that he has provided like a Mini Sphinx, Trojan Horse, and Chinese Pagoda just to name a few. The instructions again are condensed into one page and are somewhat small. This may give novice builders some trouble when … Continue

STUDS Builder Trading Cards Series 1 Review

September 23, 2014 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 0 Comments

We’re back with another review but it’s something a little bit different. We have received our set of the Series 1 STUDS Builder Trading Cards and I was pretty excited for to get them although I wish I got in on the Kickstarter a few years back. If you haven’t heard of if before, STUDS is the brainchild of Brandon Griffith which showcases people in the community who uses LEGO to build unique creations.

The set that I purchased was the Series 1 Factory Set which consists of 96 base cards as well as the 9 card poster set. The box came in a sealed clear plastic and when I opened the box, it gave me a nostalgic feeling inside. You may not know this but I used to collect sports cards and when I opened the box, the distinct smell that the cards gave off took me back to a younger time when I was still collecting and cracking open a fresh pack of cards. The cards are printed on 14pt. gloss coated card with with UV coating.

The first card in the set is the Title Card which is kind of a table of contents for the rest of the cards which includes Featured Artists, Brick Artists, Group Builds, Brick Illustrators, Brick Conventions, Brick Sites, Brick Products, Brick Publications, and the Checklist. Other people who were involved with STUDS include photo editor Tommy Williamson, copy editor Ayleen Gaspar, and illustrator Scott Tolleson.

As mentioned before, STUDS Builder Trading Cards feature many LEGO artists in … Continue

Brick City: Global Icons to Make from LEGO Book Review

September 23, 2014 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 2 Comments

Recently, we received a couple of LEGO books from Barron’s Educational Books to review. The first of these books is Brick City: Global Icons to Make from LEGO by Warren Elsmore. It contains 256 pages and retails for $19.99.

Brick City: Global Icons to Make from LEGO

Warren Elsmore isn’t as well-known here in the States as he is in the UK as the organizer of AFOLCON and as a former chairman of the Brickish Association. He is also known for some very elaborate builds such as London’s St. Pancras Railway Station and the London Olympic Park.

The first part of the book takes a look at the history of LEGO which every book seems to do. It continues to talk about the most useful bricks in LEGO building, where to get the bricks, design software, and different building techniques.

The rest of the book which is about 90% is devoted to real-world objects that were built by Warren as well as from other LEGO builders around the world. There are over 100 recognizable global landmarks in 39 different cities that are shown in the book with many of the builds having instructions on create them yourselves. Each build also has a little information block about the object.

Although there are instructions for the builds, they are are fairly small to look at. For novice builders, it may be difficult to follow since the steps can go by pretty fast.

Finally, Brick City contains two large fold-out posters that are suitable for framing. The posters include Warren’s St. Pancras Railway Station and Spencer … Continue