79003 - An Unexpected Gathering

79003 - an Unexpected Gathering

 

 

 

Year: 2012

Pieces: 652

Retail Price: 69.99 (purchased on clearance for 25)

Theme: The Hobbit

 

This set came in 4 substeps (which we pay no attention to - we dump all of the bags together. Its more fun that way right?)

The first substep consisted of building the base and the bottom portion of the walls. I have to admit here though that this base is very loose and comes a part quite easily with not much effort. Instead of using one large piece (which adult fans of LEGOs decry), they used multiple plate pieces but they did not do a very good job of reinforcing them.

Substep 2: Complete the walls, doors, windows. etc...  Other than the base, this set is very nice. The detail is great (ink pen and ink jar for example) and it is very playable, coming complete with 6 minifigures (Gandolph the Grey, Bilbo Baggins, Balin the Dwarf, Dwalin the Dwarf, Bombur the Dwarf, and Bofur the Dwarf). 

Substep 3: Details. The details are fantastic! Many food pieces are contained including a dining table The outside may seem cluttered, but that is the way of the hobbits. If you remember the movies, the outside was cluttered as well. Hobbits apparently are packrats.

Substep 4: The roof. This one seemed slightly awkward honestly. I know that there is no good way to make a roof rounded on all sides with LEGO, however an up close view of it just seems jaggedly. The tree is small and could use some more foliage as it seems like it is dying.

 

And there you have it - the first of the Daniels LEGOs that are posted on this blog. Overall, a nice set but there definitely will be some reinforcing of the base plates if he wants to play with it.