BrickKnight | The Lego site the internet deserves, but not the one it needs

The Lego Movie 2 Review (Hello Again)

February 16, 2019 by admin·0 Comment

Hello again LEGO verse! I saw The Lego Movie 2 last night and here are my thoughts:

Just like the first one, the sequel is a near barrage of pop-culture and Lego jokes. Even though it’s a kid’s movie many of the jokes come flying at you and are aimed squarely at adults, e.g. a joke about Radiohead! The movie starts right where the first one left off, the Duplo have just landed and begin attacking the Lego world. Instead of the reveal at the end that this is human directed play manifesting in the Lego world, we see more frequent live action shots throughout. The whole allegory is that the younger sister, formerly the Duplo user is trying to play with/alongside her brother and it asks the question – can two siblings play nice? It gets a little too heavy handed in this aspect at times but I respect it for going for an overall theme with some emotional heft instead of just being all silliness. They pretty much wrap this up at the end of this movie, it gets a bit Toy Story 3 there for a minute, so any sequels may have to just go for the silliness or not use the human control component. I assume there will continue to be sequels, Lego Movie 2 made $34 million in it’s first weekend and I’d think even if the movies just break even the merchandise sales are enough to keep it going. Hopefully any sequels will continue to be creative and not keep following the “everybody teams up to fight the threat to the universe” formula.

But anyway, plot wise, right after Duplo attacks we’re taken to five years later where they live in Apocalypseburg and it’s gritty and dusty, basically Mad Max has come to the Lego universe and it leads to some pretty funny moments. They could have spent more time here as far as I was concerned.

But then they’re attacked by a minidoll (I’m still not buying any minidolls) and they’re on the run then the main crew aside from Emmett is abducted and taken upstairs. They meet the villain for most of the film a Duplo face that seems to have LEGO pieces surrounding it, and likes to sing and rap. I really didn’t care for the character, there really wasn’t anything funny about it the way there was the first movie’s Lord/President Business by Will Ferrell.

So Emmett goes to save everyone despite worrying he’s not tough enough. He meets another Chris Pratt voiced character who is tough and has a spaceship crewed by velociraptors. From there it’s just all saving the universe and jokes sprinkled in with a somewhat satisfying resolution.

Overall, it was entertaining and not a bad thing to see in the theater, the sound of kids guffawing is probably the main reason to pay $15 vs waiting for dvd/streaming. Lots of good pop culture humor and a lot of Lego specific humor, a great scene where two minifigures fight in stop motion by banging together just like they do when you’re a kid and make them fight in real life. So I’d recommend seeing it at some point and maybe watching the first Lego movie beforehand to remind yourself of the characters if you’ve only seen once or a long time ago.

Lego Star Wars Assault on Hoth – What a piece of junk!

February 13, 2016 by admin·0 Comment

I’ve been waiting for this set for awhile, as any right thinking person, I’m a huge fan of Hoth. But this is just a lame combination of the prior Hoth sets. The keyword here is creativity, the massive lack of it, that is. Lego is supposed to be a creative toy and we’ve already bought this creative toy before. If not for the minifigures, the parts value of this set must be really low. It’s sad to see how cool the Ewok Village was and how comparatively lame this is – and yes, this set is $250. And for $250 you only get one Tauntaun. And I thought they smelled bad on the outside.

Review (Finally): 21304 Lego Doctor Who

January 25, 2016 by admin·0 Comment

Pieces: 623 Minifigures: 4 + 2 Daleks Retail Price: $59.99 Price I Paid: Retail

Well I finally got around to posting in 2016 and reviewing a set I had been waiting for for a long time, Lego Ideas Doctor Who. It’s great. It’s expensive. But it’s great.

It comes in the usual nice Lego Ideas box.

And has 4 or 6 minifigures depending on if you count Daleks…

Bowties are cool.

Fezzes are cool.

Clara thankfully doesn’t have short legs. She should – but short legs are not as playable and don’t lend themselves to all the running that is done on Doctor Who since the reboot.

They are printed on the back, if you are someone into that sort of thing.

Weeping Angel and 2 Daleks. Lego Minifigure Weeping Angel. Insane. If any minifigure is going to give you nightmares, it’s this one.

The Tardis – Police Box is well proportioned and dark blue. No stickers involved! I do wish they could have printed that all on one long flat piece but they sort of couldn’t have…

If the David Tenant minifigure were here, he’d say, “Allons-y!”

Don’t Blink.

And there you see, the pieces lift up and…

Voila! We’re in the Tardis!

As you can see, 3 of the 4 Police Box flats have to be two pieces.

You can close the Tardis with one minifigure in it. Handy for travelling through time and space.

And there you have it. This set gets a 9.5. It’s a shame it isn’t cheaper so you can stock up on weeping angels and Daleks. Here’s hoping that it sells well enough to warrant more Doctor Who sets and iterations of the Doctor and his companions in Lego minifigure form. As you probably know you can get a Cyberman with the Lego Dimensions pack and the current Doctor in a different coat as well. The Cyberman is only $7.49 currently and tempting me even though I won’t be playing Lego Dimensions.

Well there you have it – the review you’ve hopefully not been waiting for – hopefully you’ve bought it for yourself already.

And I made it through the whole review without saying “wibbly-wobbly, time-y wime-y stuff.” Oh.

Buy it on Amazon.

LEGO 2015 Pre Black Friday VIP Invite Sale Items

November 21, 2015 by admin·0 Comment

I got an invitation to the Lego Store for the first time in 2015 and wanted to post the items that were on sale for VIPs, nothing too special, I didn’t buy any of the items on the list. I was interested in the Town Square but settled for the Cinema Modular with more pieces and less of a play set feel too it. The freebies were the ones everyone can get, the calendar and the Lego Gingerbread House. So here’s the list:

Doctor Who Lego Ideas set is finally here!

October 6, 2015 by admin·0 Comment

Ok, it’s not actually here yet, but pictures of it are here!!

See the rest of the pictures and details (ASIDE FROM A RELEASE DATE!) here.

Review: Lego Scooby Doo 75900 Mummy Museum Mystery

September 28, 2015 by admin·0 Comment

Pieces: 110 Minifigures: 3 Retail Price: $14.99 Price I Paid: 12ish

Like the recent Pirates sets, there is a minifigure parade depicted on the back of the box.

Just like in the Mystery Machine you get Scooby and Shaggy. You also get the Mummy which is similar to the Series 3 minifigures mummy but includes a headdress.

And I would’ve gotten away with it too if it weren’t for you darn kids! Yes folks, when you take the mummy headdress off of the figure it reveals the villain trying to get away with it.

Scooby Doo comes in his own bag.

This is the museum part. It’s not a lot, but you don’t expect a lot for the small set. This could translate to many other styles, especially if you wanted to build a real museum, which would be great.

If you pull on the chain behind, the sarcophagus raises to reveal the mummy. The decals on the sides are a little cheesy.

And that’s about it, a small set which I got for the Mummy parts but if you’re getting the Mystery Machine and just want the figures, you don’t really need this set because it doesn’t add any figures or iconic things from the series.

1 Year of BrickKnight!

August 27, 2015 by admin·1 Comment

Today marks one year since I started this website. There have been a few lulls but 123 posts in all isn’t bad. I’ve reviewed 42 sets give or take a few classics. Hopefully at least 42 people have visited the site at some point…

Here’s to the future – (and if you want to be specific, hopefully a future of reviewing some Doctor Who sets that don’t require purchasing a video game) that might happen before anniversary number 2.

Lego Classic Thursday: 7683 Fight on the Flying Wing – Lego Indiana Jones

August 27, 2015 by admin·0 Comment

Back with more Indiana Jones.

Set 7683 from 2009 and you get the plane, fuel truck and four minifigures.

Those are some of the nicest abs I’ve seen on a minifigure, nice mustache as well. The Indy and Marion Ravenwood figures are identical to the ones in the 7621 Lost Tomb set.

The plane is pretty iconic and has a forward cockpit and a rear gunner cockpit, which is where Marion gets trapped after Indy beats up the mechanic (and he gets chopped up by the propeller). This isn’t a plane from real life, the closest thing to look like this, the Horton Ho 229 was jet powered. Of course, if you have jet engines, you can’t get chopped up by propeller blades.

The fuel truck is in the set as well, so that it can leak everywhere and create a fiery explosion enveloping the plane. It’s nothing special.

As you can see, the cockpit canopy is a special piece to this set. The Wing that comprises the plane is also one solid flat flexible type piece. With stickers of course.

This is another great movie set for recreating scenes.

FIGHT!

Another set if you like Indy, you’ll love. Given the large size of the plane, this set makes a great display.

Review: Lego Scooby Doo 75092 The Mystery Machine

August 24, 2015 by admin·0 Comment

Pieces: 301 Minifigures: 4 Retail Price: $29.99 Price I Paid: Retail

Well you asked for it (or maybe you didn’t and had no idea it was even a possibility) so here it is: Scooby Doo in Lego form.

Do you like bright colors?

You get the namesake van, the Mystery Machine, and Fred, Shaggy and Scooby plus a villain.

The hairpieces are pretty incredible for Fred and Shaggy and I think Shaggy has too much volume and not enough shag, but I understand what they were going for. Unfortunately the villain in this set doesn’t have a reverse with a un-masked face.

The Mystery Machine is pretty true to it’s cartoonish original. Though as we expect with most Lego licensed vehicles, it seats fewer figures than the one in the movie/show/cartoon.

Once you put Scooby in the back there’s no room for anyone else, i.e. Daphne and Velma (who don’t come with this set anyway).

There’s a sink and a stove in the back, although they’re on opposite sides of the van, unlike in real life. But since this is based on a cartoon, I’m not bothered. There are also computer devices – which we didn’t have in the 60s but maybe this is based on the more modern cartoon Scooby Doo that I’ve never seen?

Finally we get the villain and his computer behind a scary tree with a crystal. There are crystals in all the sets I believe, again maybe this is something specific to the new show? Oh well, the scary tree is pretty cool.

All in all I’d give this set a 5 of 10. It’s not stunning or anything but it’s fun and if you like Scooby Doo (who doesn’t?)

The set sold out of the Lego store quickly but it’s available on Amazon shortly:

LEGO Scooby-Doo 75902 the Mystery Machine Building Kit

Lego Classic Thursday: 7199 The Temple of Doom – Lego Indiana Jones

August 6, 2015 by admin·0 Comment

Look at that beauty- and head over to Flickr to see it bigger. Is it possible for a set based on a scene from a movie to be better than the movie? If it is, this set leads the way. While it’s not perfect, Temple of Doom is far, far from perfect. Again I’m using the “Classic” moniker on a set that’s from 2009, but the movie is a classic even if it’s not. You can’t go straight from Raiders of the Lost Ark to The Last Crusade, you need a buffer.

You get Indy, Willie Scott and Short Round, to be chased and ritually sacrificed by Mola Ram and his two henchmen. Notice the tiny Lego head on ‘s headdress – a nice touch, it’s a skull in the film. Willie has her scream face, basically the thing she does for the whole movie “OHH, INDYYYYYYYY.” I find the constant whining and screaming tiresome, but Spielberg ended up marrying her. Maybe it was just acting?

Even cooler, Indy is missing his sleeve just like in the movie.

So the set comprises the minifigures and the “temple” along with the mine car track. The layout isn’t exactly faithful to the movie but I don’t think that would be exactly possible, and it’s such an iconic scene/set that it translates regardless.

Here we’ve got Mola all ready for the sacrifice or whatever ritual he was performing. I know it involves tearing Indy’s heart out – literally. That’s not a feature included here. Everybody smile!

The glowing skull stones move forward and the trap door opens in the floor Lego cage and pulley system not included.

The temple is fairly two dimensional. At the bottom there is a chopping sword, I’m not sure why, along with some mining equipment and jewels.

The “fire rock brick” is a fairly rare element in the set. Pretty cool too.

When it’s time to escape or just joyride around, hop into the mining car.

Willie Scott is still screaming. Short Round is still stereotyping.

The tracks pass through a second structure with rocks in the top (I think this is a rock hopper) that can be dumped into a mining car below. Not actual rocks of course.

This is obviously a cause for great concern from Willie Scott.

But in the end, we know it all turns out ok. Mostly.

This is a great set because it seems to really capture the scenes from the movie on a big scale. It has height and width even though it doesn’t have a lot of pieces. Let’s remember it’s based on a movie where 3 people survive by jumping out of a flying plane into a life raft. Of course, one of them happens to be Indiana Jones.