Before I get into the review, a huge thanks to the LEGO CEE team for sending the new LEGO Movie sets to Brickset for review, and to Huw for sending a couple of them onto me.
The LEGO Movie sets have been highly anticipated, and should prove popular thanks to the diversity of themes which the film is encompassing. One of the smallest of the thirteen sets which have been released is 70800 Getaway Glider, priced at £11.99 or $12.99, consisting of 104-pieces. As the least expensive of the LEGO Movie models (equal with 70801 Melting Room), this will perhaps be a popular starter set to the theme, and I think it is a great introduction! Not only is Emmet, the protagonist in the film, included but we are also provided with a pair of Lord Business' sinister robots in the form of Sheriff Not-a-robot and Deputron which will provide potential for plenty of entertainment.
This is an excellent little set actually, among the best I own at this price point. There is plenty of playability to be had with a model which looks excellent on display, and there is a brilliant selection of parts as well for such a small model, so I am very impressed with the Getaway Glider as a whole.
Box and Contents
The box is the standard size for this price point, and displays Emmet fleeing from the pair of robots on his glider. This is evidently a recreation of a scene in the film as one can see this vehicle fleeing the Wild West in the teaser trailer for the LEGO Movie. It is nice and glossy with a lovely film strip graphic in the corners, and this is continued on the back where some of the (fairly rudimentary) features are demonstrated. It is perhaps interesting to note that the building in the background on the front of the box is in fact brick built, which is unusual but reflects the fact that the whole world in the film is going to be made from LEGO, unlike previous games and movies.
Inside the instructions are folded and there are two bags. The instruction manual contains a few interesting advertisements at the back, including one for the LEGO Movie itself, one for a few of the sets, and one for the accompanying game.
Minifigs
The first Minifigure we have is Emmet, the unlikely hero of the LEGO Movie, who is mistaken as a MasterBuilder and 'The Special.' It is he who Vitruvius and the other MasterBuilders are relying on in their quest to stop Lord Business' nefarious plans.
His is a fairly simple Minifigure, but a nice one nevertheless, with all new components (except for the neck bracket). The hair-piece is a brand new mould, with some wavy lines running through it and a tuft on the crown of his head, cast in reddish brown. I particularly like this piece as it matches my own hair quite well, but I digress. His head has new printing, with a smile on one side and a look of terror on the other. It is perhaps interesting to note that his eyes do not have white pupils unlike other characters such as Wyldstyle or Bad Cop. This might be a plot point in the film, or perhaps just a nod to the original LEGO smiling face which appeared on every Minifigure until 1989 when other expressions were introduced.
Around his neck is a neck bracket, attached to which is a brick which has sparked some interest, the 'Piece of Resistance.' Caperberry has mentioned this component on his excellent blog, and will no doubt be inventing some creative uses for it very soon. This piece is in fact the height of two standard 1x1 bricks, with a hole to receive a stud on one side of it, and a stud on top (although this does not appear in the film, where it instead has a flat top). For the torso and legs, Emmet has some fairly standard orange overalls, complete with silver high visibility strips on the front and back as well as an identification badge which says 'Emmet' along the top. This is a Minifigure that will likely suffer from what I know as 'Indiana Jones syndrome.' That is, it is a lovely Minifigure, but once you have bought more than a few LEGO Movie sets you might become bored with it as you will have so many. Still, this cannot be helped as otherwise I would be complaining that he does not appear enough and he is, as I said, a superb figure.
Next we have two of Lord Business' servants, the first of whom is the brilliantly named Sheriff Not-a-robot. This is my favourite of the three figures, and he looks very dapper in a full black uniform. He wears a brand new hat which suggests to me even further that we must surely get a Western theme soon, given three new Cowboy style hats this year, and numerous other pieces which lend themselves to such a theme. There is a golden star printed on the hat as well, which looks suitably superior. His head is pearl dark grey in colour and is printed with some angry red eyes, a grimace, and what look like sideburns, which I think is a fantastic touch! He also makes use of a brand new moustache piece in black, which obscures some of his face, thereby disguising him. I imagine there will be plenty of applications for this piece, and better yet, we are provided with a spare. His torso is detailed on both sides with a black jacket, which continues onto the legs, over a grey waistcoat, and a badge designating him the sheriff. He is armed with a pair of the older revolver pieces, which I thought was curious as I anticipated the use of the pistols introduced with the Lone Ranger theme.
Finally, we have Deputron, another robot in Wild West apparel. He wears a reddish brown fedora, the same piece as used on Indiana Jones Minifigures back in 2008. The head is similar to that of many of the other robots, although this piece has a monocular strip in red rather than two eyes like Sheriff Not-a-robot and others. His mouth is a simple grille and that is printed on a metallic silver face, which in turn is printed on a pearl dark grey head. Deputron's torso has a blue bandanna and brown jacket on it, which is also printed on the reverse and he wears some blue trousers with brown boots which are printed on the legs. He is armed with yet another new piece however, a dark bluish grey rifle which has a clip on top for attaching a scope or other accessories. This component looks very nice and has multiple points of attachment, so can be carried in several different ways.
The Build
Consisting of only 104-pieces, I was not expecting very much from the build of this set, but I was actually quite satisfied with it. SNOT techniques are used throughout the glider, with construction going in just about every direction. I am impressed with the solid attachment of the pair of fins which form a sort of tail for the glider, as I feared that they would be fragile, but are not due to the use of headlight bricks in which the bars are placed for extra durability. Actually, for something which looks quite fragile, the entire model is quite durable!
There are plenty of pieces of particular interest included, three of which are brand new moulds. For a relatively small set, there is an extraordinarily impressive part selection, so it should appeal to MOC builders who might otherwise never build the set as there are some potentially useful components included.
The Completed Model
This set basically consists of three elements, a horse for Sheriff Not-a-robot, a small cactus, and the getaway glider itself, which is designed as though it has been cobbled together from bits of a bank in the Wild West. From what we can see in the teaser trailer, this model is a direct recreation of the glider seen at around 1:13, and it looks brilliant.
I love the use of a mixture of light bluish grey, browns and tans to create the rugged appearance, but not at the cost of swooshability. Four stickers are used in the set, which are quite easy to apply and look lovely on the wings of the glider, or for use in Wild West MOCs, particularly the 'BANK' sign which is split over a pair of 2x2 tiles, although they will fit together nicely should you wish to form the full shop fascia. The chain, which runs between the wings, can be held loosely be a Minifigure and this can be pulled back and forth to flap the wings as in the trailer. The two vanes on the bottom look great and actually provide a solid spot where one can hold the model, despite appearing fragile.
My favourite section of the glider however is the top, which consists of a pair of decorative bull horns (which have only appeared in one set before now, 79110 Silver Mine Shootout), and a weather vane. This weather vane can be turned by twisting the barrel to which it is connected and makes use of a pearl silver chicken piece, which could be very useful indeed.
Also included is a green cactus, which is built simply using some lime green and green pieces. This looks decent enough although not particularly accurate to a real cactus. On the other hand, arguably this model is based on how cacti look in the LEGO Movie, in which case this may well be a direct recreation. A brown horse for Sheriff Not-a-robot to ride also makes an appearance, complete with a saddle and brick to fill in his mid-section should you wish, that can rear up and nod like other horses from the last year or two.
Overall Opinion
From this taster of the LEGO Movie sets, my interest is only heightened. I love the cobbled together style of some of the sets, and the pieces included in each of them look to be very useful. If you are dubious whether or not you will enjoy this theme, I think that this set will persuade you to, at the very least, have a go at a slightly larger model. The playability is also outstanding as you are provided with everything you need to create an exciting chase scene, and at good value in my opinion. Please note that the trans-clear 1x2x5 brick which is in the photo below is not included in the set, but is being used to support the glider as it does not stand up on its own.
I have two more reviews to come, and reviews of the other sets will be appearing over the next few days, so keep a look out for those. I definitely look forward to picking up some of the other sets at some point after receiving this one, and I imagine many of you will too.
Parts: 5 - For a small set, it contains an outstanding selection of pieces, including a pearl silver chicken, a pair of horns, the new moustache piece and of course the Piece of Resistance.
Playability: 5 - There is a lot of fun to be had with this set in my opinion, with all the characters you might need for a small escape scene.
Building Experience: 4 - Naturally, being only a small set, there are not a huge number of interesting techniques, but I very much like the construction of the glider.
Value for Money: 5 - A price of £11.99 seems very reasonable for three great Minifigures and 104-pieces.
Overall: 4.5 - Excellent Minifigures, a lovely little glider and a great price make this a superb set as a whole!
This article was originally published at http://www.brickset.com/news/article/?id=9214'>Brickset.com.
