5885 - Triceratops Trapper

5885: Triceratops Trapper

Year: 2012

Pieces: 271

Retail price: 49.99 (25.99)

Theme: Dino

 

Dinosaur Legos... what can go wrong, right?  Honestly, not much. I think dinosaur Legos are one of those themes that no kid could turn away from. Really, that's how LEGO makes its money. They look at what kids play with (ambulances, fire trucks, police cars, star wars action figures, etc...) and turn them into LEGOs. Brilliant really, and these dino themed Legos from 2012 were a blast. I only wish we were able to get out hands on more of them.

 

This set is the triceratops carrier. The set comes in three parts - the people and triceratops, the cage, and the vehicle.

 

 

So the people are slightly uninspiring. I think LEGO could have gone with a slightly less caveman look and instead gone with a more militaristic minifig, but to each their own I suppose. After all, the winner of this set is clearly the triceratops. Look at that monster. I have no clue if he is proportionately sized or not, but based from my observations of Jurassic Park, he is. But then again my analysis is from Jurassic Park, a fictional movie that included several dinosaur inaccuracies, so who am I to say anything. The triceratops is still awesome regardless, and has several movable parts (all 4 legs, neck). it also sits on a typical LEGO plate so that you can do some decent posing with him. Win.

 

The second part of this set is the cage for the Triceratops. I'm not too certain on the story behind this theme, but from what I can gather, people are trying to tranquilize and then capture dinosaurs. How either the dinosaurs or people got there is never quite explained, but apparently the people have modern technology on their side so in my version of the story, people are reclaiming Jurassic Park. I love the movie and no, the references to it will not stop.

 

So, in order to catch the triceratops, we have a cage. Its nothing too fancy, but it does fit the dino in it with the tail sticking out the back end of it. One flaw I see with it is that the back walk up ramps do not lock in place, meaning the triceratops only has to breath wrong for them to fall down and then escape. I think they could have done something more with the giant bar thingy at the entrance to make it be more secure, but that's just me. It kind of resembles the cage that the veloceraptor is in at the start of Jurassic Park (there we go again), only much less secure... Maybe their lack of detail to their cages is what caused the dinosaurs to escape after all.

 

The third and final part of the truck that carries everyone. It is actually a pretty decently made truck. It stands very sturdy and is actually larger than the LEGO mining truck released in 2013. Obviously not meant to go driving through a forest to get the triceratops due to it's width and length, the big wheels do give it good clearance for minor obstacles in its way. The truck comes equipped with 4 tranq rockets (how these realistically work is anyone's guess...), spears in the front of the truck (for when the triceratops escapes again), and, well, that's about it. The cage is placed on the back (although there is no winch or rope to bring the cage up on the bed of the truck) and the triceratops is brought back to headquarters for whatever they do to dinosaurs at the headquarters...

 

I know I poked a lot of fun at the set and its realism issues, however the set itself is a great set for the kids to play with, especially when paired with the other sets of this theme. Again, I wish I would have purchased them all instead of only the three we did get. Specially, I'm sadly missing either of the 2 T-Rex sets... and it makes me cry a little bit.

79001 - Escape from Mirkwood Spiders

79001 : Escape from Mirkwood Spiders

 

Year: 2012

Pieces: 292
Retail Price: $29.99 ($14.99)
Theme: Lord of the Rings, Hobbit

 

 

This was another set that Daniel got for Christmas. It isn't a bad set and it comes in two parts. The first part contains the trees of the forest, while the second part consists of the spiders of the forest. Now I have not seen the second hobbit movie still, do once again I cannot comment on the accuracy of the set, but for a kid it does contain some interesting storylines. Myself, I still prefer the classic castle theme over the licensed themes, but I seem to be in the minority. Lately Daniel has been preferring star wars over any other theme due to his new love affair with the LEGO star wars games and the Star Wars Clone Wars TV show that appeared on Netflix during the last month. Of course that's the theme I don't have anything of, but I digress.

 

This set was not too difficult for Daniel to put together. LEGO notoriously has a difficult time with making instructions easy to read when it has black pieces in it and this set is no exception to that rule. He had some problems putting the trees together as well as with the contraption to make the tree fall, but overall he did well on this set.

 

 

In the first part of this set, the spiders were built. We have another LEGO spider that we haven't built yet that is much larger than this one (the spider in the original LOTR trilogy (Shelob)) and these are small in comparison, however they are still fun to play with, and because they are smaller it is easier for them to gang up on unsuspecting minifigs. The legs are very articulate and allows them to be placed in multiple poses.  The first part of the set also contains the elves Legolas Greenleaf as well as Tauriel.

 

 

The second part of the set consists of the trees that the spiders call home. The trees themselves aren't very interesting. They have a few red leaves on them which helps with the spooky atmosphere but I personally would hope for more foliage in my trees.  perhaps they are dying because of the large numbers of spiders living in them?  Anyways, the trees contains spider web bags that the spiders can trap the minifigs in which was pretty cool. One of the trees also contains a mechanism that, when pulled, allows the tree to fall down so that the minifigs can be saved.  In the second part of this set, the dwarves Fili and Kili are created. Lastly, this set also contains some glow in the dark mushrooms and a few smaller glow in the dark spiders.

 

Overall this is not a bad set and it was very playable. There are enough minifigs, bad guys, conflict and action for this set to work as a standalone set for people not very into LEGOs to have a ton. Daniel had fun playing with it after it was built and he wanted to rebuilt the Hobbit house (previously reviewed), but we didn't due to that set taking 3 days to put together for him.  Maybe when we get through putting LEGOs together we can do that - put them together by theme.

 

 







6913 - Roadster

6913: Roadster

Year: 2012
Pieces: 152
Retail Price: $14.99 ($8.99)
Theme: Creator

Ok, so before I begin, it is important to explain that creator sets are different than the normal LEGO sets thus far reviewed. Instead of it's sole purpose to be playable, creator sets are designed first and foremost to be a display model. The designers spend their time coming up with ways to make the model look better and more realistic at the expense of not being made to minifigure scale. In addition, creator sets often have instructions available that show multiple (normally 3) different models you can make with the same pieces.

This is one of those sets. The main model is a slick 2 seat road car but in addition it can also be made into an old timer car and a jeep. I feel the roadster looks the best of the three models, but they are all fun to build and show off. This model would not work well in play though, as the model is 8 studs wide while LEGO semi trucks are only 6 studs wide and cars are normally 4 studs wide. It would stick out fairly well without a good amount of modification made.

The set itself isn't too difficult to build. The pieces all go on well and it did inspire Daniel to think of ways to use the pieces he has to play with on a regular basis.

Below are the photos of the build for the roadster:

As you can see, a decent amount of detail was given to the model. There are a few things that are off (such as the rear wheel well and the door hinges (which really take away from the "slick" feel given)), however the overall model is a nicely made model for the price. It probably wouldn't be something that I personally displayed, but then again it's not for me, it's for Daniel =)

As mentioned, the model also can be built into an old time car:

This one is a bit more odd than the roaster. It's designed to look old, but doesn't really look old to me. Pieces are just "off" for the build and of the three sets that can be made, this one is my least favorite (and Daniel's).

The third model is the jeep:

Again, this build is off. The rear of the jeep with it's stylized curves is odd for the jeep, The front end also is not quite long enough to feel like a true off road vehicle. Instead it looks a bit too small, maybe a dune buggy type of jeep.

All together not a bad set. We're not really isn't building models for show yet, so for us this is mainly a parts set so that Daniel can build other things with it.