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30643 – Easter Chickens
Brrrrrrkk. Brk. Brk brk.
60305 – Car Transporter
60333 – Bathtub Stunt Bike
A month ago, I criticised one of the Stuntz bikes as being wildly impractical for stunt riding since it was a heavy, cruiser style motorbike. My views on what wildly impractical can be in regard to stunt motorbikes have been adjusted considerably by this set.
As you might guess, a bathtub shaped motorbike frame 01723 is a new part unique to this set, although that hasn’t of course stopped MOC designers using it as a regular bath.
40468 – Yellow Taxi
I’ve mentioned several times how much I love the Creator series. They are often innovative since they don’t have to fit into a theme-theme or the minifig scale. They use common parts which means they are reusable, and it also leads to a lot of “alternate builds” – MOCS that can be built from that single set.
This New York cab was not available in stores – only from LEGO, but if you missed it, you can probably make it from your existing parts – the rarest part here is probably the 1×2 trans sloped brick.
There’s a couple of interesting offsets in this set. The first is on the undercarriage of the car where the offset is created by the studs-into-holes method. I think this technique is well-known, but rarely seen in official sets. From memory, I think the ‘rules’ powerpoint said it’s legal, but for decorative use – ie you use it to attach an element, but wouldn’t build further off it.
The next offset was for the cab cab, achieved with a lot of jumpers.
I quite like the windscreen and windows, in fact this whole part of the build with lots of sloping bricks. Minifig scale vehicles (which this is not – there’s no room inside of a minifig) generally use the windscreen parts.
Usually the numbers on models – number plates, boat numbers etc – are the set numbers, or some sort of easter egg. This taxi number plate LDC-812 does not mean anything to me, but perhaps it does to New York folks. Although the advertising on the top of the cab (for the Statue of Liberty and New York style Pizza) is iconic, it’s probably my least favourite part of the this set. The scale is too big. If I hadn’t already stuck the stickers on, I’d try with the double slope bricks directly on the cab roof.
Overall, I love this little set. It didn’t take long to put together, but it included several moments of delight at the designer’s decisions.
71032 Series 22 Collectable Minifigs
I’m always keen for the minifigs from the annual Collectable blind-bags. LEGO continue to make these minifigs top-shelf in regards to design, printing and accessories. Here’s the two I’ve snagged from this collection.
Robot Repair Tech
From the name, I assumed this is a technician who repairs robots, but this tech doesn’t really look like he works on delicate electronics, so I’m wondering if he normally is welding giant fighting mechs, and the little droid is just something that helps him with that. Then it dawned on me that it is a robot who does repairs – possible in an off-world space port that deals in space-junk of all kinds. This would explain why it has a giant screw on it’s hip and hazard tape on it’s boots; it is the hazard. In which case, perhaps the little “droid” isn’t a robot, but an alien being who supervises the robot tech.
Wheelchair Racer
This guy looks super determined, and is wearing his medal from the previous event in this one, probably in order to psych out the other competitors. I appreciate the engineering that went into ensuring his hand could accurately grip the wheels, that’s quite a nice touch. I’m also impressed with the helmet which is exclusive to this mini-fig
Stuntz – 60331 & 60332
LEGO have never been afraid to incorporate un-system like additions to sets in order to add play features. Usually these things hang around for a while then disappear from the line up. In the case of these little motorbikes from the Stuntz city sub-theme, it’s a friction fly-wheel motor to make them drive off after a couple of zooooms along the floor. This is accomplished with a new (to me – actually 2021) part – 69869c01 Vehicle Base, Motorcycle Chassis with Light Bluish Gray Flywheel. The tyre on the friction powered wheel is a bit small to match the front tyre in these sets, which makes me wonder if it was originally designed for a scooter set.
60331 Touring Stunt Bike
This bike looks a bit heavy for serious stunt work – my own experience of taking a 650 to a motocross training event was that the lighter bikes were eating me up, but this cruiser is going to be very hard work. Nevertheless, respect to this guy for thinking he’s still young enough to ride or die in a stunt show, and bonus points for the impressive mustache (15439).
60332 Reckless Scorpion Stunt Bike
This looks like a more maneuverable bike, and the character has that “don’t care if I live or die” look that is well suited to their profession. I’m not sure how they get the mohawk into their helmet, but I do applaud them for that sensible approach to workplace safety that is only slightly undone by taking a scorpion the size of your arm as a passenger when doing stuntz. I’m not sure the horns are going to meet the AS/NZS 1698:2006 standard for helmets, but perhaps if they are designed to bend or snap off under impact. I also have safety concerns with the opaque visor, but perhaps that’s a cool part of the act where they do a daring stunt, then repeat it with the visor down so they can’t see.
Check out Stuntz
The packaging for both these sets has a QR code that takes you to a scroll-able view of a scene containing all this year’s City sets. You can scroll around clicking on icons to learn more, or click on the sub-theme names to go directly to them. Once I found the Stuntz team, clicking on them pulled up a stunt suggestion generator that was like a mad-libz for stunts (verb – noun). The first suggestion was crash into a sink which seemed doable.
60226 – Mars Research Shuttle
Mars Exploration was a big 2019 City sub-theme. We built the Rover set at the time. This set is centered around the shuttle.
LEGO sets in this price range are super playable, and a space ship of some kind is a classic LEGO staple. The set has two minifigs. One of the mini-builds is a drone for scoping out promising areas, then there’s an external mobile robot arm thing for collecting samples, and a rocket powered box thing to transport them back to the small lab in the shuttle body. As with the rover set, there’s a new type of geode (this time trans blue). Since geodes are formed in sedimentary rocks by minerals dissolved in water, the number of geodes being discovered in this sub-theme seems like conclusive proof of previously a lot of water on Mars in the LEGO Mars universe.
I’m skeptical about the wing design on the shuttle. The atmosphere on Mars is very thin, you’d need a massive wing area for it to be any use – better to just forget the wings and rely on the rocket for lift. Of course it’s possible the wings are just for landing back at Earth and the launch from Mars involves tipping back and just rocketing out. Escape velocity from Mars is going to be a bit less than half of Earths, but you’re probably still going to need some disposable boosters added to this design as well.
The LEGO Space command are clearly more enlightened than this dodgy news report suggests NASA are with a mixed gender crew. On the box the woman is the scientist and the man drives the bus so I’ve kept it that way in my photos. I was a bit disappointed the lady didn’t have any hair to put on when she takes her helmet off, but if you spend a lot of time in zero-G perhaps a yellow buzz cut is the way to go.
I thought the guy’s helmet might be new – I didn’t recall the cool black neck seal on the back but it turns out I got a couple in that rover set.
40526 – Electric Scooters & Charging Dock
I guess this is a City Minifig pack plus just enough story to create some play scenes. Which I totally approve of. At this price point its the sort of thing you might buy to keep two kids busy in the dentist waiting room while you have your checkup. You get the three minifigs, a couple of electric scooters, and the parking bay for them which seems to also be a solar charging station.
I haven’t seen these scooters before – they take a minifig well and stand up on their own. It’s interesting to me that the solar panels are the exact same model as used on the international space station, which shows how the benefits of space research flow to everyone.
The woman with the comically large spanner coming to repair something is shown on the box as an “Exclusive Minifigure”. She’s got some nice printing and hair, but I’m not sure how she’s more exclusive than the other figures – ie generic City people.
I’m also a bit confused about the alternate face on the bratty skatepark girl. On a different fig it could be a suggestive wink, but on her, with the freckles and helmet it comes off more like a grimace. Perhaps she tried a tail whip and whacked her ankle.
I don’t have any of those scooters or wheels in my collection, and Ms Fixit’s toolbox is a great new addition. My favourite new piece is probably her neat baseball cap ponytail though.
60326 Picnic in the Park
Another in the 2022 City theme around parks and gardening.
Couple of very cute little squirrels here, probably after the acorns in this tree rather than the pizza. All of the bike wheels in this set are ones I don’t already have. This is also my first bicycle frame – I have several motorbikes, but no bicycles. They do look rather uncomfortable – definitely do not ride on cobblestones!
Beam 'n' Pin 