Today we are quickly interested in the content of the set 31204 Elvis Presley - The King, a new reference in the LEGO ART range which, with its 3445 pieces, allows you to assemble three portraits of your choice of the famous American singer. The combination of three copies of this product, which will be available from March 1, 2022 at the public price of €119.99, also offers the possibility of assembling a large "collector" mosaic. I remind you for all practical purposes that the instructions necessary for assembling the combined mosaic are not provided and you will have to download them in PDF format from the manufacturer's website and consult them on a PC or on a tablet.

It's no coincidence that LEGO is releasing a product this year featuring Elvis Presley: A Musical Biopic Produced by Warner Bros. will be released in theaters next June and LEGO obviously intends to surf on the simple fact that we are talking about the King again, knowing that Tom Hanks will also be in the film to play the role of Elvis' manager, Colonel Tom Parker.

As much to tell you right away, I am personally not a big fan of Elvis. I therefore motivated myself to put the thing together by telling myself that, on the visual that I chose from the three proposed, the character has a false air of Dick Rivers. And that he doesn't stare at me with a quizzical look or a fixed smile.

The recipe here is exactly the same as for the other references in the LEGO ART range: the nine 16x16 plates that serve as a support for the work are linked together by a few pins and you just have to carefully follow the instructions in the instruction booklet. to assemble the chosen model. A few pieces then dress the result with a black border that acts as a frame. The visual is finally enhanced with a signature of the singer, you can also not put it and the parts necessary to plug the hole are provided.

The perception of the proposed experience is very subjective: some will see it as a guided puzzle that relaxes them a little while others will quickly be annoyed to have to settle for fixing Tiles colored circles for a few hours to finally obtain a painting of 40 x 40 cm sold for €120. The Tiles on the other hand will be difficult to remove from the modules and the supplied super brick separator is not of much help. Its use in this specific case just guarantees you to expel pieces to the four corners of the living room and the golden crowbar provided is a better ally during the operation. Choose the visual you want to assemble carefully, dismantling the whole thing is a real purge.

For those who are wondering, each mosaic is foolproof once assembled, the pine Technic provide a first level of connection to the nine modules, the whole is reinforced by the presence of the gray parts placed on the back of the model and the whole is completely secured by the installation of the frame of the table with tiles that overlap the uprights. The Tiles remain bare on the front face, it will be necessary to dust regularly or try to add a plexiglass insert.

As with the other mosaics in the range, LEGO provides two wall fixings but you can easily use only one by placing it in the center of the frame. LEGO still does not provide an easel to present the construction on a piece of furniture without having to lean it on something and that's a bit of a shame. Bonus: The finished frame does not fit in the product packaging, figure it out.

As is often the case in this range, the works on offer are only really legible with a certain distance. Moreover, it is not Pixel Art in the literal sense of the term, with its subtleties that make it a truly original artistic exercise. LEGO offers us here simple photos converted into mosaics with more or less coarse flat colors. So much the better for the vintage effect and the erasing of Elvis' facial flaws, so much the worse for the photo-realism of the thing.

As usual, we are promised a thematic podcast planned to accompany the assembly from the launch of the product. This audio track will only be available in English and is not yet downloadable at the time of this writing.

In short, if the inventory (see scanned page above) appeals to you because you love Elvis Presley to the point of displaying this painting somewhere in your home, go for it. If you want to try to transform Elvis into Johnny Hallyday or Eddy Mitchell thanks to the inventory provided, try it. Otherwise, do like me and quickly move on, the month of March will be full of new products in many ranges and you will easily find what to do with your 120 €.

Note: The set presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at March 5, 2022 next at 23pm.

Update : The winner was drawn and notified by email, his nickname is indicated below.

Today we quickly go around the contents of the LEGO set 10299 Real Madrid Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, a large box of 5876 pieces that I have just finished assembling and which will be available from March 1, 2022 at the public price of 349.99 €. As the title of the product indicates, this is a question of assembling a reproduction of the Real Madrid club's residence stadium and it is already the third set of the same type to join the LEGO catalog after the two references already marketed on the same theme, the sets 10272 Old Trafford - Manchester United (2020) et 10284 FC Barcelona Camp Nou (2021)

What the name of the product does not reveal is that this reproduction of one of Europe's most popular stadiums is already on its way to being permanently obsolete. The real Santiago Bernabéu is indeed currently being renovated with delivery scheduled for the end of 2022 of the new version of the enclosure.

The stadium will frankly change its appearance and the version offered by LEGO will therefore be nothing more than the memory of a glorious but bygone era. Real Madrid fans can always console themselves by saying that they own the version of the enclosure whose lawn was trodden by Cristiano Ronaldo between 2009 and 2018.

I have already spoken to you in detail about the two other stadiums offered by LEGO and this new reference walks directly in the footsteps of its predecessors, with its qualities and its defects. You can imagine because of the appearance of this new stadium, we risk being bored during this "experience" of editing for adults which is broken down into about forty sachets. It's the subject who wants it, we assemble almost four times the same thing except for a few details over the pages of the two thick instruction booklets.

We start as usual with the lawn with here the signature motif of Santiago Bernabéu. The white lines are more or less aligned this time, there has been great progress on the pad printing of the three plates used. A detail: the pad printing of the central plate is in fact slightly lighter than that of the other two and you will notice this difference in color under certain lighting.

Even knowing that we will not escape long repetitive sequences thereafter, the discovery of the first quarter of the stadium is interesting with the construction of the support composed of Technic beams and large colored elements, followed by the addition of the elements architectural elements which then make up the exterior of the enclosure which measures on arrival 44 cm long by 38 cm wide and 14 cm high.

As for the two other stadiums already marketed, the blue bleachers are symbolized by striated parts separated here by orange lines, we are definitely in symbolism and minimalism. The repetitive nature of the assembly will inevitably give confidence to those who lend themselves to the exercise and it will be advisable not to be too pretentious by keeping only a distracted eye on certain sequences of the instruction booklets: there is everything even a few variants that should not be missed or you will have to go back a few pages. Take my word for it.

The sticker party starts quickly with a board that contains about sixty stickers and the few stickers that quickly take place on the bleachers are not really connected with their support. The graphic designer has once again tried to reproduce the reflections of the different streaks but it is in my opinion too coarse to be credible and sufficiently discreet.

The adjustment between the different bleacher modules is very approximate depending on the area and there are still a few empty spaces in places, but this stadium is designed to be observed from a certain distance and the whole remains visually coherent in my opinion. Unlike the set stage 10272 Old Trafford - Manchester United, the corner stands, with the exception of the smallest modules at the foot of the lawn, are here made up of striated pieces which contributes to the very homogeneous rendering of the whole.

The construction is designed to allow a separation in two of the enclosure. On both sides, the stadium quarters are attached to each other and you will have to remove a few pieces to separate them and store them when the time comes to make room on your shelves. The roof is removable, just to let you admire the interior of the stadium with its dozens of stickers. It's a detail that doesn't actually add much, there are only bleachers to contemplate and the roof could also have been firmly attached to the structure.

There are some subtle differences in color on the white parts, some of which go from a very clean white to a creamy white which will give you an idea of ​​the color of the roof after a few months of exposure. Even though LEGO has long since changed the recipe for the plastic used for parts by removing Tetrabromobisphenol-A, a flame retardant that caused elements exposed to UV to yellow prematurely and whose use is now banned, roofs will inevitably end up tarnishing. and the stickers of the stands by suffer from prolonged exposure. Small consolation, the two large white plates flanked by the mention Real Madrid are pad printed.

If the construction is generally solid and easily transportable, there remains, as for the two other stadiums based on the same principle, some slightly annoying points of fragility: the edges of the stands on which some stickers are stuck have an annoying tendency to come off if, for example, we try to readjust a block of seats after having made the junction between two quarters of the structure. It will then be necessary to completely unhook the block concerned, reconnect the support and then put the steps back in place using the retaining clip. To avoid this inconvenience, it is better to just grab the two halves of the stadium by the outer edge of the construction and not try too hard to manipulate the stands.

The parallel with certain products from the Architecture range might seem obvious, but the extreme miniaturization of the places to keep a construction of a reasonable format will undoubtedly leave fans of this range unsatisfied even if there are some rather convincing architectural details. on the outside of the enclosure. It is only a stadium, even if Santiago Bernabéu is an enclosure with very original facades, expanded and modified according to the different phases of renovation since 1947.

The forecourt of the stadium is decorated with a few trees and the club bus that transports the players. No stickers on the sides of the bus, it's a shame, two stickers more or less wouldn't have changed much. The name of the stadium and the emblem of the club plated on the pediment of the place are on the other hand stamped, it is always taken. Regarding the fidelity of the reproduction, I think that the designer delivers a very convincing job even if the external walls of Santiago Bernabéu are not so beige, that the four side towers are missing some spirals and that some areas have obviously given him some a hard time with the arrival of techniques that are a little surprising but always interesting to discover.

Once again, die-hard Real Madrid and LEGO fans may be won over by this cumbersome model of the club's home stadium. Some may hesitate to spend the 350 € requested by LEGO on a "souvenir" version of a speaker with a glorious past but already obsolete and it will be in my opinion wise to wait a few months to pay for this derivative product much cheaper than its starting public price or change your mind and finally give up. If this niche product ultimately meets with a simple success of esteem, nothing serious for LEGO, the buzz is made and the marketing department has largely found its account.

This high-end merchandise costs more than a jersey, now it's up to you to see if your love for this club is worth spending such a sum to add this stadium to your shelves. Stadium collectors who now have three different copies will find it difficult to ignore knowing that the range effect is well respected with three models on the same scale which use the same tricks to symbolize, for example, the bleachers, bases matching look and similarly designed stickers.

Note: The set presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at March 4, 2022 next at 23pm.

Update : The winner was drawn and notified by email, his nickname is indicated below.

Today we take a quick tour of the content of the LEGO Star Wars set 75324 Dark Trooper Attack, a small box of 166 pieces which will be available at the retail price of €29.99 from March 1, 2022. The set could only have been a simple Battle Pack too expensive but it cleverly emancipates itself from its obvious function of providing minifigs of the same faction by offering a very relative playability, we can't blame LEGO for emphasizing the fact that this product is also a " building toy".

With 166 pieces on the counter, the proposed construction is necessarily basic, even if the use of large elements gives it a little volume. This is to reproduce the scene of the arrival of Luke Skywalker aboard Moff Gideon's cruiser in the last episode of the second season of the series The Mandalorian. The scene had its small effect on the screen, LEGO could not miss the commercial potential of even a symbolic reproduction of the thing.

The playset offers a little fun with a rotating elevator shaft, a rotating platform that can be manipulated from the side of the construction and a support on a slide that allows Luke to push back a Dark Trooper using the Force. Why not, we'll play for three minutes, and we'll have to take the time to understand how Luke can take the elevator with his saber deployed in his hand like in the series: just orient the accessory upwards, a space has been planned. The level of integration of the wheel placed on the elevator is debatable, it can be removed if you do not want to keep the playset side of the product.

The ghost therefore faces three Dark Troopers who furnish the piece of corridor nicely dressed with about fifteen very faithful stickers without which the scene would be a little pale. One sticker for eleven pieces to assemble is still a lot. The droids are ten in number on the screen, you will need several boxes to obtain a less symbolic reproduction. Everything can end its career wisely on the corner of a shelf, unless you rely on this box to recover the three Dark Troopers it contains and install them in the cruiser of the set 75315 Imperial Light Cruiser (159.99 €) which provides only one copy.

The three Dark Troopers delivered here are identical to that of the set 75315 Imperial Light Cruiser and that makes sense. The sellers of the secondary market have also reacted quickly as soon as this product was announced by lowering the price charged so far for this very successful minifigure. LEGO corrects the shot here by delivering us black blasters more aptly than the gray version provided in the other set. You will have the choice to display these minifigs with or without their shoulder pads, the pad printing of the torso is almost identical to that of the accessory which covers part of it.

The Luke Skywalker minifig is new from shoulders to toes: the figure's torso and legs are flanked by new pad printing and the character's head is the one used on several occasions since 2015. The angular black hood is not not new, it is that of Ap'lek (Knights of Ren) in 2019, Palpatine (2020), Garindan (2020) or even Bone Spirit from the Monkie Kid range in 2021. The minifig is successful, difficult to make a relatively sober outfit sexier. Some might find the hook on the bottom of Luke Skywalker's torso a little too big, but it's along with the belt buckle the only significant detail in a torso that's just a few gray lines.

In short, we have here a nice little interactive derivative of the series The Mandalorian which allows both to enjoy a scene that will be remembered and a trio of Dark Troopers. What more ? Grogu hiding somewhere? A lower public price for this Battle Pack luxury? A sale in batches of two copies to obtain a more faithful scene? We could always find ways to improve this product or compensate for its high price, but this set is far from embodying the worst of what LEGO offers us in the Star Wars range. I say yes.

Note: The set presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at March 2, 2022 next at 23pm.

Update : The winner was drawn and notified by email, his nickname is indicated below.

We end this series of reviews of the 2022 novelties of the LEGO Star Wars range helmet collection with a quick look at the contents of the set 75343 Dark Trooper Helmet, a box of 693 pieces which will be available at the retail price of €59.99 from March 1, 2022.

For those wondering where the helmet to be assembled here comes from, it is actually the head of a Dark Trooper battle droid, an armor that made the heyday of several Star Wars licensed video games, including the very pixelated Dark Forces which I spent long hours on in the 90s, and which is here based on the third generation version seen on screen in the second season of The Mandalorian series.

This model is undoubtedly the most divisive of the three launched this year: it is not really a helmet, it is content with a completely black surface, it is also covered with visible tenons on its upper part and the interpretation in LEGO version of what was featured in The Mandalorian series won't be to everyone's taste.

Once again, this product will only exist aesthetically from certain angles or under lighting that will make it possible to reinforce the shadow areas essential to the legibility of the design. In full light, it's a graphic mess with improbable angles and a front face that will inevitably make one think of an animal's muzzle which would be made up of smooth elements as opposed to the rest of the construction with its visible tenons.

The two "eyes" of the droid may seem a little too small, but there is an explanation for this choice: the head of this droid in the LEGO version is tilted slightly forward and the designer will have wanted to adapt the size of the eyes to reproduce the effect seen on the screen. The translucent red pieces are fixed on white elements, the contrast obtained is not to the advantage of the reproduction with eyes which struggle a little to be noticed in the middle of all this black carcass. As you will have noticed, the photo of the product on the packaging is retouched to really highlight the eyes.

The finish on the front of the droid's head is not quite true to the version seen on screen, only those who vaguely remember the various scenes where these droids are present will think otherwise. The face of the droids is not made up of angular pieces that go all over the place like on the LEGO version. On screen, the "cheeks" are simply made up of several layers that converge relatively cleanly towards the muzzle.

On the LEGO model, there are only two left, the eye area being an amalgamation of parts that are too complex and messy for my taste. We could also discuss the two ingots which are in principle present to add a finishing touch to the muzzle, we only see them on arrival thanks to the reflections on this part of the helmet.

LEGO misses in my opinion here the opportunity to bring an original finishing touch to this product, even if it means breaking the usual codes of this range: The integration of a luminous brick in the half-empty skull of the droid to allow even light up the eyes occasionally at the push of a button. At €60 for the pile of black pieces, there was room to add this element without cutting too much on the margin and the product would then have taken on a whole new dimension, this lighting making it possible to forget the aesthetic approximations of the product.

Here too, the cluster of studs on the upper area of ​​the helmet contrasts a bit with the smooth parts, as if this Dark Trooper was wearing a hat that was too tight. It has become the signature gimmick of the range, it will have to be done with or turn to other products with a finish that is more respectful of the reference object.

This model does not escape a sheet of stickers which allows to refine some areas of the droid's head. As usual, I don't give much credit for the condition of these stickers after a few months of exposure, they will eventually peel off and LEGO does not deign to provide replacement stickers in the box.

On the staging side, the head is slightly tilted forward, so we can see some mechanical elements of the droid's neck under the border of the armor. It's nicely executed and the product can be admired from every angle without disappointing even if we think that LEGO could almost have offered us a complete bust of the thing rather than cutting off the head of this droid to put it on the base usually used by products in this range.

As often with products that use an inventory mainly composed of black elements, you will have to sort out the parts that are too scratched to deserve to be placed on the model and contact customer service to obtain the replacement of those that do not meet your requirements. finishing criteria.

The opportunity to exploit the presence of this new generation of Dark Troopers in The Mandalorian series was too good, LEGO had to try something. The minifigs are convincing, this head of the helmet collection is in my opinion a little less even if it is finally fitting with the other helmets both in the interpretation and the inevitable approximations imposed by the format.

It will therefore be up to everyone to assess the interest of the three new products in this collection of affordable decorative objects that take up little space. You have my opinion on these three products, it's up to you to make your own. I remind all the same to those who have a little trouble with the criticism of products derived from their adored range that passion should not prevent criticism. I collect products from the LEGO Star Wars range without discernment, this does not prevent me from finding some of them less successful than others, or even completely missed.

Only two of these three sets are currently offered for pre-order on the official online store, the references 75327 Luke Skywalker (Red Five) Helmet et 75328 The Mandalorian Helmet. You will have to wait until March 1 to buy a copy of the set 75343 Dark Trooper Helmet.

Note: The set presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 23th February 2022 next at 23:59 p.m. Not agreeing with me is not grounds for disqualification.

Update : The winner was drawn and notified by email, his nickname is indicated below.

We continue the tour of the 2022 novelties of the helmet collection LEGO Star Wars with a quick look at the contents of the set today 75328 The Mandalorian Helmet, a box of 584 pieces which will be available from March 1, 2022 at the retail price of €59.99. I'm not making you a drawing, it's about assembling Din Djarin's helmet aka The Mandalorian in the series broadcast on the Disney + platform. On screen, the accessory offers a wide range of reflections on which the directors of the various episodes of the series never hesitate to linger, this will not really be the case here.

Indeed, it cannot be said that the LEGO version pays a brilliant tribute to the accessory worn by the bounty hunter. It is once again the codes of this range of derivative products launched in 2020 that take over and the upper zone of the helmet is, as usual, only a cluster of stepped studs.

It is therefore necessary to rely on the metallic headband which crosses the helmet from side to side to embody the expected roundness and shiny surface. LEGO will undoubtedly have considered that this product sold for €60 did not deserve to be covered with metallic parts and the result suffers a little from this choice which we will be sold as an aesthetic bias but which undoubtedly also has an economic justification. In the box, there are only fifty elements in metallic Silver, that's meager for a derivative product like this.

Assembling the helmet is rather pleasant, at first it feels a bit like building a big BrickHeadz figurine with its colored entrails and then all you have to do is connect different sub-assemblies with studs more or less visible on all sides. The angles of the side panels are well managed, the black T-visor is decent and the designer has done what he can to reproduce the "cheeks" of the helmet with their particular angles.

The result offers an effect that seems interesting to me seen from a certain distance but which struggles to convince me from a little closer. The vertical metallic bands placed along the cheeks seem a little alone in the middle of these shades of gray, the shine of the helmet is too suggested for my taste to be credible. The overall look of the model remains despite everything on arrival very acceptable. Quickly assembled, quickly displayed, this affordable derivative product should appeal to fans of the series.

As with other helmets in the range, whether they are Imperial or Mandalorian accessories, it will therefore be necessary to admit that the curves are only suggested and to accept that LEGO frankly wishes to differentiate its products from other interpretations of the same objects by manufacturers. toys or models.

The abundance of exposed studs on the upper surface of the helmet will not be to everyone's taste, however, and the shiny band that circulates around the construction will not be enough to compensate for the staircase effect that has become one of the emblematic markers of this range with well-defined codes.

The somewhat abrupt transition between the smooth side surfaces made up of more or less scratch-free parts and the upper area lined with tenons is on its side a bit disarming, especially when this helmet is seen from the side or from the back. It will really be necessary to play on the lighting of the exposure area to obtain an effect that takes advantage of the shadow areas and for this product to be highlighted thanks to a light gray which visually becomes a little more "dull". As on the box.

It is once again the public price of the product that will be the arbiter of the match: for 60 € at LEGO, you should not be too demanding and this helmet will not ruin the fans. The icing on the cake, not a sticker on the horizon in this box, I don't see what they would have been used for here anyway.

A small note about the fifty or so metallic pieces delivered in this set: the ink layer is uneven and it seems to be poorly applied in places. I'm not talking about the scratches linked to the friction of the parts in the oversized bags themselves thrown into an oversized box, but about the very imprecise application of the ink. It's a bit of a shame, you already have to settle for the union minimum for a product which by definition should give pride of place to reflections, it's a bit annoying to get more parts with a very random level of finish.

It's not worth making tons of them, fans of the series will undoubtedly be convinced by this model which will not cost them very much and which will allow them to show their passion for the character without having to bother with umpteenth ship and some figurines.

Those who do not like studs will have to turn to reproductions offered by other manufacturers, no doubt more faithful to the reference accessory but which do not combine two worlds associated for better and for worse for many years. : LEGO bricks and the Star Wars license.

Note: The set presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 20th February 2022 next at 23pm.

Update : The winner was drawn and notified by email, his nickname is indicated below.