Set Review - Double Decker Couch 70818

Welcome to a new year with new sets, new reviews, and new cage matches.  In my mind, new is overrated.  It always encourages us to spend more, do more, and not appreciate what we already have.  "A pet capuchin, squee!  [94 hours later]  A pet caracal, squee!  Go away, monkey."  But newness must be embraced lest you be relegated to a musty old dinosaur sitting in the corner.

So enough of the soapbox derby, on with the new!

Teaser images of the Double Decker Couch came out last fall and I instantly knew this was going to be a hot set.  Maybe even hotter than the Research Institute.  For a measly $15 you get not one, not two, but FIVE (no, three sire- wait! augh!) minifigs including a Benny and Vitruvius.  Not only that but this is a Vitruvius with a BRAND NEW HAT!  Take that, caracal!  This new version is the ghost of Vitruvius.  Y'know, the one hanging by a floss in the movie.  The ever present Emmet and somebody named President Business are also included.  And as if there weren't enough cats already, you get Unikitty in a sitting pose with both a sad face AND a worried face.  Am I using enough CAPS?

The flagship of this set is the Double Decker Couch which is an exact replica of the one on the massively expensive Sea Cow.  If that's the real one, maybe this is the Double Decker Couch Double.  I found the construction to be a little lacking.  The top is held sturdily with some Technic love on the back but the sides are flimsy.  Most of the set is composed of plates with clips and handles, giving this thing more joints than a contortionist.  Still, you can squeeze three figs on the top and bottom each, meaning you need to borrow one from another set.

Benny, already deprived of oxygen, is having fun with his wiener.  Emmet is waffling.  President Business is all like, "what?"

The second build in this set is the Small Car from way back in 2010.  When it came out I thought it would be a cute addition to my miniscule City collection.  I modified it to pull a minifig sized teardrop trailer.  I couldn't pass on the car and was thrilled to see it in the movie.  Now, thanks to the magic of marketing I have THREE!  The second one came from a The LEGO Movie build at TRU where you could build Emmet's car that transformed to a flying car.  And by transform, I mean totally dissemble and rebuild.  This third version has a NEW HAT!  Okay, not really but the subtle differences will make a die-hard fan want it.  It's got a trans-black instead of trans-blue windshield.  But beyond that, it has a RADIO that belts out 5-1/2 hours of Everything is Awesome.  Neat little printed tile.


There's a nice bonus included within the extra parts.  As you know, 1x1 plates of both round and square variety are always included as extras.  So are cheese and other tiny modeling elements such as a horn.  What's interesting about this set is that Unikitty's expressions are printed one two separate elements.  There is an extra 1x3 brick and plate.  You can make a Unikitty AND a Mini-Kitty.  The best part is that you can give Unikitty four different expressions in all.  Or turn her into a four eyed alien.  Mucho fun!

As I said, $15 is WELL worth it.  At 197 pieces plus the extra kitteh faces, this should be selling for $25.  Perhaps LEGO saw the secondary market potential for the Vitruvius and Benny figs and sought to squash it with utter saturation.  To play that card though, they're gonna have to keep up in the production aspect.  Oh snap!