The Brand

Blue Brixx is a German retailer selling various brick brands. These brands vary in system and this is indicated on the website with the graphic below.  Their focus is mainly on adult builders which is reflected in the variety of sets. There are architectural sets, animals, history including military themed sets and much more. They also sell sets under their own label. They don’t have their own factory but work together with Chinese factories like Xingbao to produce the sets for them. 

Before ordering I had a look at reviews online to see what other people had to say. I didn’t see a lot of reviews in English or Dutch. And the couple that I found were mostly complaining about poor customer service when parts were missing or orders went wrong. With 33 stores running at the moment and just a handful of these complaints I reckoned this probably wasn’t representative of the average satisfaction. And with prices quite favorable I took the bait and ordered a few sets. In my order details on the website there are direct links to ask for missing parts so it seems that customer service isn’t as awful as some people stated. 

After a few days the order arrived and I could have my first look at the sets. In this review the focus will be on the smallest of these sets, a brick built sparrow. More reviews will follow in the near future.

The Packaging

The sets came in generic brown boxes with a sticker on the side with set details. I prefer this to be honest, the environmental footprint is of course better with generic boxes that are used for a lot of sets without the printing. Furthermore there won’t be leftovers at the end of production runs that might get destroyed. A final (perceived) benefit of this is that no budget was used for the artwork/marketing etcetera, bringing the cost down. Most sets I throw boxes away immediately so for me this is a positive. However, in this small 161 piece set six (unnumbered) plastic bags were used. This seems a bit excessive to me. 

The Instructions

The instructions for the set needed to be downloaded from the Blue Brixx website. I prefer digital instructions, so once again this is a plus for me. The advantages are similar to the generic boxes, environmental footprint and keeping costs down. The instructions themselves are really clear, when there might be confusion over a color used it’s marked with a specific description as can be seen in the picture. 

The Bricks

I’d say the quality of bricks is rather good. The bricks are a bit shinier compared to what I was used to. They feel slightly different and require a bit more force to be connected. The clutch power as a result is also stronger.Especially the bamboo plants present in the set benefit from this. Some of the plates have a dent from the molding process in one of the studs. I’m not an expert on these procedures so don’t know how to accurately describe it so there’s a picture showing a couple. This doesn’t impact the clutch power and the plates are perfectly usable, it just looks a bit different. For me it isn’t a big issue, the building process is more important for me and from a little distance you don’t notice it. However I’m sure there will be people who will dislike this. 

The Build

I really had fun building this set! The instructions offer a nice complexity, not too easy with building steps too small but also not too complicated. There are some nice parte usages and techniques in the build. It uses a more basic assortment of parts to great effect and no specialist parts are used to achieve certain curves and angles. I’d say a rather old-school building experience that I’ve been missing for some time. My favorite parts were these knobs to reverse the building direction. As shown in the picture below, you need a bar to position them, but it’s a really nice little trick to use in builds. The feet benefit most from these, having binoculars attached with these.

The finished build is quite a nice depiction of a sparrow. Maybe slightly bigger than real ones. The dimensions seem to be with quite a thin design. Using a basic assortment of bricks this is as close as you can get I think. The sparrow is positioned on a small base with a branch and the bamboo leaves I mentioned before. This not only looks nice but give the model a sturdy connection as well.

Value For Money

For €9,95 there’s really no debate, this is a great little build and really worth the purchase. The amount of parts, the complexity of the build, the quality of the bricks all these things combined I’d say the price is spot on. 

Conclusion

The product is both similar and very different to the products LEGO offer. I was a big fan of the Ideas Birds set from 2015 and absolutely regretted buying the Kingfisher set earlier in the year. This kind of set is much more to my liking, but that’s a matter of taste. It’s more what LEGO used to be a few years ago compared to how their products developped over the last few years. So in all honesty it probably won’t be everybody’s cup of tea, depending to what you’re looking for in a set. 

For me an interesting build is much more important than how the finished build looks. It’s also more serious (less cartoonish) compared to most LEGO animals. So if that sounds like something you could be interested in, I’d definitely encourage you to give this a try. If you value different things in your building sets, this might not be for you. Hopefully we’ve given you a good insight into the pros and cons of this Blue Brixx model to give you an impression what this set is about.

So what do you think of this set? Does it appeal to you? And how do you feel about buying other brands than LEGO? Share your thoughts in the comments!

THE BOX AND PACKAGING:

The box art features the usual LEGO and Marvel logos along with the black and white line drawn LEGO Minifigures and Infinity Saga at the bottom right, which is where we first see the new Baby Groot Minifigure. In the centre is the main build, Rocket holding both of his large handguns. Flip the box over and we see Rocket in a different pose with Baby Groot standing between Rockets feet and another picture showing the projectile in one of Rocket’s guns. On the side of the box we have the full photo of a 1:1 Baby Groot minifigure.

We also found on opening the box, paper bags! This is the first time we have seen a set use paper bags fully, except we discovered that 3 of the 4 bags had the small element plastic bags inside, so not 100% paper. This may have something to do with the factories where the elements get picked, hopefully in the future we will see only paper bags.

THE BUILD

If you have ever built one of LEGO’s buildable characters, like Wolverine or Captain America, then you will have a good idea of how the build will be with this set. There are a few differences, mainly in the tail which is very cleverly done with great part usage using barrels and a bush. The noticeable difference is in the legs where we see a brand new element that we have not seen before, this will be a great part for MOCcers, a 2×2 plate with a bar beneath. This part adds a lot of stability to the build by locking the knees, however this sacrifices movement in the knee joint. We do get great posability in the hips, ankles, arms, hands and head tho.

The overall build is very good and you can instantly tell its Rocket Raccoon, the build is not in scale with the buildable Groot, both normal and venomised, but they do display really well together. The build looks fairly chunky and is solid with not many pieces that will just fall off. The build for the head is fantastic, using a lot of SNOT (studs not on top) techniques and curved plates to finish the texture off well.

The stand out part of the head build for me was how the eyes and eyebrows were built, using the new 1×1 snot bricks with rounded off back this allows for the angles if the eyebrows to be pushed back and it works a treat!

We all know Rocket loves his guns and gadgets and the large handguns included in the set are pretty good, however we wish we had the option to build a larger gun with the same pieces or maybe by adding a few elements to make a crazy large gun, oh well this is something we can all try to make ourselves.

THE MINIFIGURE

We was very excited to see a brand new Baby Groot minifigure with this set, the head features brand new printing and he looks really cute and he is in his Ravagers uniform which we haven’t seen since the small Baby Groot in set Ayesha’s Revenge (76080) and the usage of short legs works really well. Definitely one for the collectors.

Overall this is a great set, especially for Marvel collectors, it’s a great set to pose and display with other buildable characters, some people wont like the look of Rocket’s face but we think it works pretty well, the photos on the box don’t give this set the justice it deserves.

Due out January 1st, will you be picking this set up?

Overall look

The set looks amazing. It’s tall, so definitely an eyecatcher once placed in a city. It’s colourful and the exterior is nicely decorated and detailed to make it very suitable for display.

Parts

With 1513 parts this is quite a big set. However looking at bulk parts, it’s less than impressive. Below is an overview of the parts in biggest quantities. For a set of this size, these quantities are rather small. Of course, this is only something that’s interesting if you intend to take down the set after building, and reuse the parts for MOCs. 

source: Bricklink

Each level is built on a new ⅔ brick/plate piece and most white 1×4 plates are used to fill these gaps. As a MOC builder I consider this a poor choice, since these massive parts don’t have the versatility of using 8×16 and 8×8 plates.

Several other choices for simplified parts were made, which I will discuss later.

The big 8×16 printed tile on the side is wonderful however. Since buying it separately is also quite expensive (€10,09 on online PAB) I decided on buying the set to get it. In the print a lot of the activities and interests of the LEGO Friends characters are represented. Even a lime is included which is in the Community Kitchen set that can be incorporated into this tower.

Build process

When building sets I prefer digital instructions over paper books. With booklets I always run out of working space. However, I sometimes struggled to differentiate between color shades. Do I search for dark azure or medium azure or orange versus dark orange for example. Since this has been something that keeps coming back, I think some more attention needs to go into digital instructions. It’s more than just putting PDF files online, some thought and testing needs to go in usability. 

The build itself is also not as expected. The set is targeted as 9+. However, with the use of many simplified parts, to me it was more a mix between 4+ and 6+. For a 9+ set I’d expect a bit more interesting parts, part usage and building techniques. For example, behind the big printed 8×16 tile there are 2 big windows, this is an easy solution to cover a lot of space, but looks really awkward from the inside.

The order in which the set was built also didn’t always make sense to me. For example the awnings on the azure level or the candlesticks on the lime level could have been a bit less fragile, connecting them to the rest of the build earlier in the process. 

There are some interesting builds however. The chairs on the lime level are fun and interesting for example. But most small builds are just too simplistic and repetitive. Using the same window panels as supports for tables, instrument stands etc throughout the set. The movable crane on the rooftop is perhaps the most interesting feature from a building perspective. 

During the build, 14 stickers are used. This is a rather reasonable amount and all stickers add some detail to the build that couldn’t be achieved in other ways. 

Play value

Most levels are rather empty. Floors on the inside are just the studded plates which looks unfinished when compared to the tiled sidewalk on the outside.

Every level has it’s own destination. The azure level is for music with a performance area. The lime level has a vlogging studio and computer area for editing. The yellow level is for gaming, both board games and video games on the screen. The light nougat/coral level has an atelier for creative activities like customizing shirts with a little moving press. The rooftop features a small glasshouse kitchen garden. All of these activities correspond with the Friends characters interests.

The crane on the rooftop can move from left to right, which invites for play with the mural. The height is set however which makes the movement limited.

There are 6 minidolls included which appears to be more than usual. For example, the botanical garden has 3. Because of this, it’s more like a LEGO dollhouse as a play experience.

Like briefly mentioned, the community kitchen set can be incorporated into this set and all levels are modular and therefore easily swapped. These opportunities for customization are fun for sure. They are however rather restricted and don’t really encourage rebuilding which is a shame.

Value for money

The ‘official’ LEGO RRP for this set is £129.99/$139.99/€149.99. That seems rather steep for what you’re getting. It might be different in other countries, but here in The Netherlands most kids will be getting smaller presents for birthdays or Christmas. And like argued above, this is mostly a playset for kids in the age range 5-9. Looking at it that way, it’s hard to see an audience for this set. I ended up buying this set for €86 which is quite a big reduction. I expect this price to be more in line with what you get and the target audience.

Overall

The building looks lush and every kid receiving this as a gift will be delighted. Judging this being a MOC building AFOL however, this set is not without flaws. 

As a fan of the LEGO Friends theme I think they often offer great sets that don’t get the credit from AFOLs they deserve. The minidolls get a lot of hate and I try to look past that to see what sets are like. A set can be interesting or good value even if I don’t like the figures. But I’m sad to conclude this set is rather underwhelming. In my opinion this is the least interesting Friends set I’ve ever bought. It’s such a step back from where the Friends theme used to be. It’s a lot more closer to what’s happening within City and I’m not a fan. 

To illustrate this I’d like to compare it to 2015’s 41101 Heartlake Grand Hotel. This set has a similar piece count at 1552. The pieces were a lot more versatile and consisted of more basic bricks and in bigger quantities to stimulate rebuilding. The building techniques were also a lot more interesting, if only for the revolving door and elevator in the building. And for play features there were side builds like the taxi, detailed brickbuilt grand piano instead of the simplistic one in this set.

Maybe if the community center had one level less, those pieces could have gone into details to enhance the set. It seems to me so many parts were needed to get the desired height, too many compromises were made regarding the rest of the set. Resulting in a rather sparse interior and building experience.

In conclusion I’d say this is a 6+ set, branded as 9+ and sold for a 18+ price. Nice if you just want a dollhouse or facade that looks cool in a city, but lacking if you also want an interesting building experience with versatile parts.

Do you have or want this set? Do you agree with this review or is something missing? Share your thoughts in the comments!

It’s a small and inexpensive set with 70 pieces and a RRP of £8.99/€9.99. At first glance that might look like a terrible price per part, but take into account this set has 2 Seals, both adult and baby and a Minifigure with an extra hairpiece things might be a bit different than the numbers show.

So what’s it all about? The set consists of 3 builds: the snowmobile, a camera and an icy environment for the Seals. None of these builds are very technical. That’s also not what I was expecting from a 5+ set. None of the builds rely on big parts like Ugly Rock Pieces, big panels or big bricks. In other words the parts aren’t really specific and allow for many different purposes. For me that’s a big advantage buying this set mostly for the seals and adding the parts to my bins for MOC building. Another big positive is the absence of stickers. The only decorated slope has a print. The minifigure is nice. It has a newly recolored backpack and hairpiece and a torso that’s exclusive to this years Arctic sets. Also included is a helmet that can be alternated with the hairpiece.

Parts: 9/10

The builds are really simple, most AFOLs will complete this set within a few minutes. There’s some interesting choices though. Instead of just adding a camera piece the designers included one that’s a nice little build. Also the L-shaped Technic Liftarm that’s used for tracks is a clever choice. It allows for movement for play, but is also a kind of rare and rather new element so it adds value for AFOLs.

Building techniques: 7/10

Playability 10/10

In conclusion:

You get a few cute new animals with a few small builds. It’s a perfect gift for LEGO fans of all ages. Whether used as a parts pack or play set there isn’t really much to argue against this set. For the price and age range you basically get what you can expect. Maybe even a bit more than that.

This is a great inexpensive set. However if you have a bit more patience than me, and wait a few months, you’ll probably see some discounts on sets like this.

Value for money: 9/10

How do you like this cute Seal Battle Pack? Are you Crazy about it? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

I recently ordered the Box of Blocks Collection from Minifigs.me. The set comes with nine beautifully designed 2×2 tiles, quality printed on genuine LEGO parts. Each custom tile is attached to a 2×2 LEGO brick of matching color to better resemble a three-dimensional box.

The collection comes with a tile for some of LEGO’s most popular themes:

The Magic box of blocks tile features a Castle similar to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Where as the Ninja box of blocks represents the Ninjago theme shown by a dragon scene. 

The Dino Park box of blocks shows a T-Rex and the Jurassic Park gates. Followed by the purple Mates box of blocks showing a friends house. 

The Heroes box of blocks covers the marvel theme, whilst the Mineblocks box of blocks has a great image of Steve from Minecraft. 

Last but not least we have the Creative box of blocks showing Big Ben, this one represents the Creator Expert series. There is also a Space Wars box of blocks which shows the Star Wars Star Destroyer.

The latest tile recently added to this set is the Fantasy box of blocks showing the round door to  resemble the hobbit home from The Lord of the Rings.

These tiles are perfect for more than one of my builds but for now they will live in my Lego store vignette keeping the shelves fully stocked. Checkout everything Minifigs.me have to offer including the Box of Blocks Collection of tiles. Don’t forget that all links on this page point to them and automatically adds a 10% discount to your basket.

Here are the tiles in a scene I recently created, as you can see they’re perfect for MOCs and adding unique detail to your LEGO sets.

Today’s set review is a GWP that some argue should have been available with the LEGO Jazz Club (10312), as the pair go hand-in-hand with each other, both having that vintage style. The last day to grab the LEGO Icons Moving Truck (40586) is 3rd March, free with spends of £160 ($/€180) or more. Read our review below to see if it’s worth picking up.

The Box & Contents:

Inside the box you’ll find 2 numbered bags, a small sticker sheet, an instruction manual and loose 2×16 plate. It’s unfortunate that stickers are used in a premium looking set, one that should have been given away with the LEGO Jazz Club (10312), it demands prints in my opinion, especially when trying to lineup the larger stickers on correctly.

I total there are 4 bags, 1 number one and 3 numbers threes. Once you see which bags make what you’ll realise why they decided on this setup, at first glance it doesn’t make sense.

The manual follows suit of the ‘no frills’ style branding, as I’ve said many times before I’m not against this and actually prefer it, especially in smaller, cheaper sets.

The Build:

To watch this set being built please head over to our Instagram page where we live streamed the whole thing whilst chatting to our followers. We usually stream on that platform once or twice a week, they’re great fun and we’d love to have you there!

As mentioned above the first bag builds the Furniture, that includes a Piano, Side-table, Jukebox and Picture Frame. These are all solid designs that would fit into any Building, MOC (my own creation) or Scene, although I’m not sure what a Jazz Club is in need of a Jukebox, perhaps that is for someone else?

The Piano is especially cool and looks the part, now this is something I can see fitting in a Jazz Club rather well, that as the framed Saxophone art. Believe it or not every piece of Furniture, including the sack-truck, fit inside the Truck, the LEGO Designers have really outdone themselves this time.

The three bags that make up the Moving Truck are next and ultimately finish the whole set. When constructing the vehicle the base is made-up in typical LEGO fashion. Couple of Technic wheel pins either end of a long plate, 4 wheel arches & wheels and so on. There is something slightly different however, a small tiled channel underneath the Trucks interior, this is home to a removable ramp, perfect for getting large & heavy goods in and out with ease, it then neatly slides back into its hole.

Adding larger bricks and panels to the rear builds up that section rather quickly, getting to the application of both large stickers that little bit faster, great. I’m not one to shy away from stickers, I also don’t faff about with the Brick Separator, good old fashioned fingers do the trick, checkout my live stream for proof, bosh!

Once the stickers are applied the front of the Truck is next, with a cool technique used for the front grille the vehicle is starting to come to life. Using 5 light grey dish pieces stacked on top of each other, the vintage style shape comes together nicely and it looks great. Tie it all together with the Red & White exterior and boom, the Moving Truck is complete!

Adding doors, a windscreen, wingmirrors, headlights, steering wheel and other smaller details the Truck is ready for a hard day’s work, we just need Minifigures to get the job done.

The Minifigures:

There are 2 Minifigures included in the set and they are both great, as depicted on the box the Female character drives the Truck. She is sporting blue dungarees/overalls, complete with a white undershirt. She has Strawberry Blonde hair and two expressions, one worried and the other a more timid look.

The Male character has a slightly comic look to him, well one of his expressions is funny, the look of pure concentration on his face. This has appeared in quite a few sets recently and also in BaM (Build A Minifigure) Stations found in LEGO Stores. It has fast become one of my favourite expressions LEGO has ever done!

The other expression is more happier with a big grin. He is wearing a Green jumper and Light Blue shirt, the legs are plain grey but suit his overall look well.

Overall thos GWP set, LEGO Icons Moving Truck (40586), is worth picking up, especially if you can find it on the secondary market.

The Truck itself is a fun little build and looks great as a self contained set, stick it next to the LEGO Jazz Club (10312) and you’re onto a winner!

I particularly like the side-builds and think they’ll be very useful in future MOCs and scenes. Having two Minifigures is a nice touch, one to drive the truck and the other to load it, or try to anyway. There isn’t anything exclusive in the set but that’s OK, it’s a fun build with a lot of character.

Thank you for reading this review, we really appreciate your time and support. Please feel free to bookmark us and stay up-to-date with all the latest LEGO news and content.

This of course ushers in brand new Dinosaurs into the mix and ones you’ll want to collect in LEGO form. I personally love a good LEGO Dinosaur and can’t wait to add these into my collection, although the bigger ones do warrant a higher budget.

As usual I built this on one of our Instagram live streams and thoroughly enjoyed it, chatting with followers and genuinely having a nice time.

The Box & Contents:

There is so much happening on the the box and ai must say a really like it, it sets the tone well for what to expect inside and once it’s built, a fun and action packed build.

You see the Pick-up, Minifigures and Dinosaurs in action on both the front and back of the box. There is even space for a size comparison between a Human and a Velociraptor, Blue measures a whopping 1.7m tall!

Inside the box you’ll find two numbered bags, an instruction manual, and a individually bagged Velociraptor.

I really like the fact that there are no stickers at all in this set, it’s actually quite refreshing. Unfortunately this doesn’t mean that there are printed pieces, as there are none of them also!

The Build:

Getting stuck-in the first thing you build is the small cage contraption and Blue the bigger of the two Velociraptors.

As you’ll notice from the photos the cage doesn’t require much effort as is only made-up of a handful of pieces. A plate here, tile there, four ladder elements around the sides and hey-presto a cage for Beta, the smaller of the two Velociraptors. More on them later in the review.

Another little side build in bag one is the ramp, again not much goes into this but I think the overall look is great and is perfect Minifigure scale.

The main build in this set is the pick-up truck and it contributed to my decision in grabbing this set, it looks fab!

The colour scheme is very reminiscent of the original Jurassic Park with red and white being the main colours. It is a tad on the simple side too but I think that it works well for this vehicle, it just doesn’t need to be complicated. One aspect of it that disappoints me is you can’t lower the tailgate, making access to the back difficult for Minifigures, it wouldn’t have taken much to achieve this too.

The cage we built earlier fits snuggly into the back of the Pick-up and simply rests in place, there are no connecting studs at all. This is fine with me as makes popping it in and removing quite straightforward and with no risk of leaving parts behind.

Beta also fita in there extremely well although tucking it under the chain and positioning it correctly can make the chain clip pop off.

Put all these builds together and they look a lot better, as a whole the smaller builds don’t look as simple and actually look pretty decent.

The Minifigures & Dinosaur Figures:

Starting with the two Minifigures, we have Rainn Delacourt and Maisie.

The third installment of the Jurassic World movie hasn’t been released yet so I have no idea who these characters are, unless they went under my radar in previous movies. So I’ll base my opinions of them purely from their LEGO forms.

Both Minifigures have very detailed printing and incredibly well done designs, I particularly like Maisie’s torso design with the green army style jacket. She also has a dual layer shirt and tshirt on which also looks cool. This torso can be used for both Femal and Male characters which is vert nice to see and have in the collection.

Rainn Delacourt also has a great printed torso which also carries onto the legs. He is sporting a rather fetching long coat/jacket that has many pockets and details. He also has a dual layer style going on with what looks like two shirts underneath his jacket,you could easily get away with using just the torso and claiming it is a hoody or alike.

They both have dual faces and an alternate expression, Rainn also has a Snake tattoo on his right cheek, something I’d not expect LEGO to keep.

The image below shows you their secondary expression, which usually is a more angry or disgruntled one.

You’ll see that there is indeed some back printing on both although Rainn only has a few thread lines whilst Maisie has a logo that looks like a cartoon Lion, somewhat resembling the Pink Panther.

The Velociraptor figures are definitely where it’s at one of if not the main reason to pickup this set, as with every Jurassic World/Park and Dinosaur set.

You get two Velociraptors in this reasonably priced set (£24.99),one large and one small. The smaller of the two is Beta, this is a new mould and I must say it looks fab.

They both share the exact same design and print, with the blue streak and light olive green accents. Although Beta’s design is obviously simplified to suit the smaller mould it looks just as good.

Unfortunately Beta has no articulation but does have two legs and feet, compared to the Baby Velociraptor figures we’ve had in the past. Having this new size of LEGO Dinosaur is great and really opens up the playability of this line of sets.

The Conclusion:

Overall a great little entry set into the new wave of LEGO Jurassic World sets.

The two small side builds are basic but work well, the cage is the better rof the two as you can actually use it as part of the bigger build and has playability.

The Pick-up Truck is cool and is in keeping with the six stud wide we love, it’ll fit into a Cityscape easily thanks to the lack of stickers/prints.

The Minifigures are done well and I love the designs on offer. We don’t really know the characters and this hinders their impact for me personally, until the movie releases we won’t know what they’re about and so can’t really relate.

The two Velociraptors, Blue & Beta, are the stars of the set, and worth mostly every penny of the £24.99 price tag. Blue is based on the figures we’ve had before whereas BE ta is an entirely new mould and kind of fits between the two sizes (baby and standard).

We highly recommend this set if you’re a LEGO Jurassic World or Dinosaur fan!

Thank you for taking the time to read our review, we fund this website and the sets we buy from our own pocket, we hope you enjoy our work.

Comment below if you have any questions about the set, we’d love to hear from you.

Gallery:

Thankfully after a swift message to LEGO support I received one in the post and I couldn’t be happier or more grateful.

As always with these smaller sets I like to build them live via our Instagram account (@thebrickpost), which usually is a couple of times a week. To be notified of us going live and of course the latest news, reviews, and more, please follow us.

Now, lets get into the review of this classic but cool Vintage Taxi!

The Box & Contents:

The box itself is relatively small and the contents fills the insides almost to breaking point, when taking photos for this review I had to pop the bags back into the box and it was definitely a tight fit and had to go in a certain way so the box wouldn’t bulge. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it means LEGO are somewhat conscious about wastage and the environment.

Being such a small set there aren’t numbers on the bags but there are three of them in total and an instruction manual, which again is nice and small, perfect to slip into the box.

After the bags have been opened, the set built, and photos taken, lets review it!

The Build:

You start of by constructing a portion of the pavement (sidewalk) which all sits upon 4×8 Tan plate. Covering the plate in matching dark grey tiles it will happily sit next to other LEGO Modulars, although it is a smidgen higher I don’t think that necessarily matters much.

It features a very simple signpost that resembles the colours of a traditional Taxi, yellow and orange, its a great addition to the base and gives it that extra little something. Alongside that is a green rubbish bin, inside you’ll find one of the relatively new ‘poop‘ pieces, officially known as a Swirl, I can only guess that this particular bin is for Dog waste!

Cracking on with the Vintage Taxi itself you start off by utilising the moulded base and building upon that, as indeed how most other LEGO vehicles are started. Adding a slice of yellow here and a dash of black there, the Car soon begins to take shape and before you know it you’ve got some really beautiful flowing curves that run along each side of the Taxi.

Whilst building. The set you obviously see what goes into its construction and the hidden details you may not see or even find from just looking at it.

Under the bonnet you’ll find a very basic motor, using a 2×2 moulded engine element, it’s a very nice touch and one that LEGO didn’t really to include but glad they did. The other is the somewhat hidden boot/trunk inside the Taxi itself, located just behind the passenger seat. The included suitcase fits perfectly in this space and happily rests in place secured by the use of a 1×2 yellow cheese slope.

Focusing on the front of the Taxi you’ll see a handful of 1×1 clear studs that represent the headlights and such, you’ll also see the very impressive grille piece that is again moulded and not build-built, which is fine as this element isn’t seen to often and does fit the look and feel of the era the Car is from. The curves that run along each side are again seen at the front and add to the whole aesthetic.

Whilst building this live via our Instagram account we were asked a few times if two Minifigures could fit inside at once, and I’m happy to report that yes two Minifigures can indeed fit inside, it is a Taxi after all!

Speaking of Minifigures, there is one included, let’s take a look him below.

The Minifigure:

Including a Minifigure in these GWP sets is always a nice touch and one we’ve come to appreciate, as not only are most exclusive, or at least exclusive combinations of parts, to the set and pull in collectors, but they’re an important part of the whole play experience

From building the character, standing him at the Taxi rank, hailing a Cab, popping him inside and driving off, it’s great fun even for a thirty-something AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) like me!

During the Instagram live stream our viewers gave him a name, Steve, which I think suits him do to the ground.

I must say that this Minifigure is exclusive to the set, but as i mentioned above it’s only the combination that is unique as the printed torso and other parts have all been seen and used before in many other sets. This doesn’t detract at all from the wonderful design work LEGO have done on the Head and torso parts as that is top notch as always and done to their high standards.

The inclusion of the flat cap is very nice and just adds to the characters look, along with the suitcase, that of course has a donut inside.

The Conclusion:

Overall the LEGO Vintage Taxi (40532) GWP set is great and well worth getting, although the spend limit needed is, in my opinion, way to steep and so makes the decision to grab a very difficult decision to make.

Take the amount needed out of the equation and it’s totally worth it and a joy to build and display, it sits perfectly alongside the LEGO Boutique Hotel (10297) and rightfully so, its from the same are after all!

The Minifigure, Steve, looks cool in his padded brown jacket and flat cap and is technically exclusive to the set.

Having a portion of the pavement is a nice bonus although it does stand a little proud of the LEGO Modu baseplates. Maybe a MOC could remedy this and somehow build the Taxi rank into the Boutique Hotels walkway?

We highly recommend grabbing this soon as it will leave stores around the 13th February, or whilst stocks last, but only if you intend to make a substantial purchase that is.

Thank you for reading through our review of the LEGO Vintage Taxi (40532) set, we hope you e joyed it as much as we did.

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Link to our Instagram Live Stream: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CZfQfBNAxu4/

Gallery:

76172 Spider-Man and Sandman Showdown features 45 pieces, 2 minifigures and retails for £8.99!

The first part of the set is a Spider-Man quad bike, which has 2 main pieces that fit together using 2 x technic pins in yellow which is quite unusual but a welcome change to the usual black pins we usually see. The build is very simple, has a nice flame coming from the rear and the best piece in this build is the 3×4 wedge with printed Spider-Man symbol, web pattern and eyes for headlights. This is what I really like about 4+ sets, no stickers!

There is a very small side build which makes this set very playable for chidrens, a round brick launcher, made from 7 pieces its simple but effective.

However by far the main reason to buy this set for adults and completionists is for the minifigures, this set includes the brand new for 2021 Spider-Man with printed arms. This Spider-Man may be included in 3 of the new sets, however this is the cheapest way to get this minifigure. The torso and head prints are from the previous minifigure but still look great. Also we get the exclusive to this set Sandman minifigure, with one sand colour arm and hand and a green torso, which looks like the jumper worn when he escaped prison, half the torso has an semi-transparent sand colour print showing the green jumper beneath and this is mirrored on the back. The head is a single printed face with a brown hair piece. The legs have been replaced with a really awesome looking sand pillar and swirl, this looks amazing and can be placed onto plates or bricks with ease.

We also get a large web piece that Spider-Man can use to “trap” Sandman. Overall for £8.99 this is a great little set to get for children and adults alike, children will have fun playing with this set and adults will be able to add 2 great minifigures to their collection!

If you would like to watch my review, please check my video below:

For a small £8.99 (RRP) set you get a fair amount of pieces, 152 in fact.

The main build:
Crack open the box and out slide 3 numbered bags, usual for a set of this size.

Bag 1 consists of the main torso build and the Thanos Minifigure itself, which we’ll look closer at later in the review.

Bag 2 is the right arm and thighs, this is where all 4 stickers are applied, 2 to the upper arms, and 2 to the thighs. All 4 stickers are identical.

Bag 3 finishes off the Mech; feet and legs, and left hand with Gauntlet complete with Infinity Stones. Sadly the Stones are just transparent coloured tiles instead of the gem-like ones we’ve seen in the past.

The Right hand, with the Gauntlet, is quite a lot larger than the left hand. Granted it’s meant to be as its technically a glove. Just looks a little too big in my opinion. It does however have great articulation, which means you can grab objects and Minifigures more realistically!

The Minifigure:
We’ve only ever seen Thanos represented as a Bigfig, so seeing him shrunk down to Minifigure size is a tad strange I must admit.

The printing is done well as usual and consistent with LEGO’s quality. In the right light it gives off a nice golden shimmer.

Thanos comes with a gold helmet which suits him. He can however remove it and use the figure without it as it looks just as good.

Final thoughts:
Overall it’s a great little set, well worth the £8.99 price tag. Playability is great, specially with the added articulation in the fingers. Construction of the Mech is very straightforward and simple.

Spare pieces include a full set of Infinity Stones (tiles)!