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!

Set Review - The LEGO Movie Accessory Pack 5002041

I have to say, I'm rather excited about The LEGO Movie.  The sets are less than interesting to me.  I didn't build the wacky stuff as a kid.  I built infrastructure.  Like a space port.  Or a 4-wide train whose tireless wheels ran on an amazing layout of 1x plates for tracks.  But there is certainly some nostalgia that is piqued when I see the sets.  Still not buying them though.

But then I was browsing Brickset.com for the latest polybags and I was left jaw dropped.  There was this accessory pack for the movie that included two micro vehicles from the sets.  Must. have. now.  A little research and I found I could get it from my local LEGO store.  Free.  Wha?  When I called up I was told there were still several left (kind of the same scenario with the recent holiday boxes.)  The next day I went down and walked straight up to the counter.

"What do I gotta do to get me one of them LEGO Movie polybags?"

"Oh, they're for the kids if they build something at the build station, but here you go, no charge."

"Why thank you sir, this is the greatest gift ever!"*

I went and got me a cup o' PaB but then decided I should play the game.  So I went to the build station and slapped together a castle turret on some wings, then draped it with foliage.

"Here you go, my Aztec ruins fighter!"**

"Hey that's great, we'll put it on the display shelf."

It occurred to me that the new sets are all about creativity.  After years of not getting pictures of alternate builds that weren't in the instructions, I'd like to think that TLG is finally growing bigger.  Perhaps they're saying, "y'know what, forget this customer placating stuff.  It seems that kids are growing soft and unable to build anything we don't give them a one piece per step instruction manual for.  Let's start a campaign to get them building from their imagination.  And let's see if we can work in a billion dollar movie with some licensing deals to make it the greatest thing since Blacktron!"*  So to give out a promo that is based on the merits of a kid slapping some bricks together not from some instructions gets my kudos.

Enough story time, let's eat steak.  The set includes quite a bit of swag.  There's a keychain with a lenticular image on both sides; one side has crazy Benny and the other has Good Cap / Bad Cop.  Then there's a sticker sheet with four of the characters.  Likely I'll never apply them.

But the sauce on the steak is those microbuilds.  Both microbuilds are near the same except for the colors and top treatment.  The garbage truck is green and dark green with some orange accents on top.  The ice cream truck is pink and lime on white with a giant ice cream cone overhead.  The representations are OK, the garbage truck being more garbage trucky shaped.  The ice cream truck has the same shape but it should perhaps be squared off in back.

It's nice to see that the wheels actually turn.  In the Tower Bridge the micro cars had 1x1 round plates stuck stud-in to the Technic plates.  Here, there are half pins in the Technic plates and the 1x1 round plates are studs out.  I took this picture exactly two years ago and I've been doing this technique prior to that.  The alternate builds are as similar as the main builds.  In fact, they're downright identical other than the roof adornment.  And color.  And the rounded rear of the ice cream truck is now apparent as those parts are moved forward to the nose of the alt build.

This set has a small assortment of bright pink and green.  Of interest are the baby bows and ice cream cone.  For any other parts purposes it's pretty light.  But you're not getting this for parts.  You're getting this because you love the movie, you love micros, or you would love to see a movie about LEGO Micros.

I was so inspired I wanted to try making a few more of the sets in micro.  It was uber fun.

Bad Cop's Pursuit

Castle Cavalry

MetalBeard's Duel

Super Cycle Chase

The Flying Flusher

Rescue Reinforcements

I would have done Creative Ambush and Lord Business' Evil Lair but I ran out of time.  And steam.  Maybe next week?  And maybe the Sea Cow and the Spaceshipx3.

Want one?  Get to your closest LEGO Brand Retail Store and build something before they're gone.  Or spend $15+ on Ebay 'cuz someone else slapped together three bricks.**

Get The LEGO Movie set from LEGO Shop @ Home:



*Not really

**Really