Today we take a quick look at two small sets from the Creator range that LEGO took the trouble to send for us to talk about: the references 40468 Yellow Taxi & 40469 Tuk-tuk, both currently sold at the public price of € 9.99 on the official online store.

The theme: the transport of people for remuneration across the world with two very different versions of the concept: on the one hand the classic American yellow taxi with its advertising panels on the roof as we see it circulating in the streets of New- York, on the other an Indian tuk-tuk with its colorful bodywork and traditional decorations.

The two vehicles are not the scale of each other, as you can imagine. The 124-piece New York taxi is strangely "crushed" in the passenger compartment and we can't really say that LEGO succeeds in selling us a Ford Crown Victoria. But it's Creator at 9.99 € and simplification is essential. The taxi is 6 studs wide, which should please fans of the LEGO Speed ​​Champions range who have not appreciated the recent change in format of the vehicles in the range. No elaborate windshield, we are satisfied with a few almost transparent bricks.

The 155-piece tuk-tuk is much more successful, we find all the attributes of the machine that circulates in the streets of Indian, Pakistani or Thai megalopolises: a mix of more or less assorted colors, traditional decorations, packed lunches placed on the roof, everything is there. The assembly of the machine is more interesting than that of the yellow taxi, the latter being ultimately a pile of bricks on wheels. If you only have 10 € to spend and you have to choose between these two boxes, the tuk-tuk should be taken, both for the end result and for the pleasure of assembly.

With their reduced inventories, these two machines are quickly assembled and it will then be up to each to find a place for them in a diorama: the yellow taxi can circulate in the streets of a "classic" LEGO city and the tuk-tuk can eventually expand a thematic exhibition shelf on Asia (Ninjago, Monkie Kid), even if the version delivered here is not really emblematic of China or Japan and that it is not on the minifig scale.

Only the taxi is accompanied by stickers for the license plates, the mention on the doors and the advertising panels placed on the roof. No minifigure in these two boxes and that's a bit of a shame. A passenger hailing the taxi and a driver for the tuk-tuk would have been welcome, just to pass the pill on the public price of these small boxes.

In short, these two small sets probably do not deserve that we spend hours there and if LEGO had not bothered to send them, we would probably never have talked about them beyond the announcement of their availability. .

These are small additions that can possibly enhance a more global staging and only the tuk-tuk seems to me sufficiently accomplished to deserve to belong to the Creator range. The yellow cab is more eyeing the universe 4+ and with its vintage yet crass design it might bring back memories for those who had LEGOs in their toy boxes 15 or 20 years ago.

Note: The set of sets presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 15th January 2021 next at 23pm. "The" I try, I participate "are automatically deleted, make an effort.

Update : The winner was drawn and was notified by email, his nickname is indicated below. Without a response from him to my request for contact details within 5 days, a new winner will be drawn.

Today we are interested in the LEGO Star Wars set 77904 Nebulon-B Frigate, a box of 459 pieces which was only marketed across the Atlantic via the official online store and at Amazon. The set was sold at the public price of $ 39.99, since its sale it has been a hit with resellers on the secondary market where you currently have to spend a little more than € 70 excluding delivery costs to acquire a copy.

I ordered three copies from Amazon US as soon as the product went on sale, I repatriated the package via Shipito, I offered a copy, I keep one and I will therefore give you some impressions of this product at using the third copy received.

Putting aside the current price of the product in the aftermarket, I think this is a really nice set that deserved better than being an exclusive product at a canceled convention, San Diego Comic Con 2020. La The box still bears the mark of this exclusivity and LEGO has not bothered to modify the packaging of the product before ensuring its distribution through other channels.

The ultra-limited availability of this reproduction of the escort frigate Nebulon-B, which boils down to an exhibition product, only served to remind many fans that the ship had so far never had the right to a "general public" interpretation. Yet it would be difficult to imagine a version "System"of this vessel which would not be accompanied by a support to allow the frigate to stand upright and the scale of this small model is a compromise which seems to me acceptable.

The support provided here is sober enough not to spoil the setting and the ship, about thirty centimeters long, holds without tipping even by shifting it a few studs. The most observant will have noticed the micro-Millennium Falcon stowed under the central section separating the life modules from the engines of the vessel, the wink is appreciable.

The internal structure of the ship uses a few colored elements which bring some variety to the inventory and make it easier to locate during assembly. The exterior finish is mainly in two tones and it gives pride of place to what is called the "greebling", a technique which consists in creating surface details using various and varied elements.

Microphone, revolvers, roller blades, monochrome minifig heads, ski poles, binoculars, skeleton feet, everything goes and in my opinion it is very successful. The counterpart to this overbidding of small elements: a relative fragility of certain appendages which will tend to come off easily. This frigate being a pure exhibition product, it is ultimately not a problem and the central section is strong enough to allow the suspension of the model, I know that some love to hang their vessels from the ceiling with fishing line.

This frigate is not to the scale of any other ship available in the LEGO Star Wars range but it will easily find its place alongside some of your UCS sets (Ultimate Collector Series) thanks to the presence of the usual small black display. Too bad that LEGO did not crack a sticker with some characteristics of the ship, history of making a mini UCS (!).

In short, this pretty product could have joined the collection of any fan of the LEGO Star Wars range if its distribution had been more global, but unfortunately you have to agree to pay at least double its retail price to be able to exhibit it on a shelf alongside other vessels in the range.

With all of the expense of ordering from Amazon and reshipping through Shipito, the three copies I received ended up costing me as much as if I had ordered through the aftermarket, but I at least got the satisfaction to fend for myself without having to call a reseller and I do not regret this investment. It is you who see, depending on your desires and your means, if the purchase is justified at the current prices. on Bricklink ou on eBay.

If you are not interested in the box, you can easily reproduce this ship using the instructions in PDF format, the set does not contain any exclusive element apart from the sticker which pays homage to the 40th anniversary of theEpisode v.

Note: The set presented here, purchased by me, is put into play. Deadline fixed at 15th January 2021 next at 23pm. "The" I try, I participate "are automatically deleted, make an effort.

Update : The winner was drawn and was notified by email, his nickname is indicated below. Without a response from him to my request for contact details within 5 days, a new winner will be drawn.

And one more ! Ten years that the site has been in existence, ten years that some of you have regularly come to exchange via comments or provide other readers with their expertise and advice, ten years that have seen many readers of all ages and all horizons to arrive, stay, leave or come back after a more or less prolonged period of Dark Age.

I warmly thank all those who help make the site a space for discussion, exchange and sharing. 2020 has been a special year and many of us have had to adjust, learning to be a bit bored, discovering work or study from home and the internet has been one of the few hobbies for many people. The frequentation of the site increased according to the periods of confinement, and like in many other online spaces, the exchanges were amplified via the comments. This growing interactivity is obviously in line with what I repeat every year: A site without interactions is a one-way space and that's not what I want to offer. My opinion is only valid because it is shared or disputed, I do not pretend to serve absolute truths throughout an article or review. Without being a discussion forum as such, the site is generating more and more interactions today and that is its raison d'être.

The tips for use that are close to my heart and which are even more relevant in this complicated period: don't sacrifice anything for a box of LEGO. Don't go into debt to buy LEGOs. Plastic cannot be eaten, and it does not sell for as expensive as some people would like to believe, especially when it is necessary to act in an emergency. If personal constraints force you to put this passion aside temporarily, don't worry, nothing is final, you can come back to it later.

Next year, I hope that you will continue, as you have been doing for ten years already for some of you, to come and interact with other fans in these pages. A passion only really makes sense if it can be shared with others, even if they don't agree with you.

I wish you all a happy new year 2021, for many of us it probably shouldn't be worse than 2020 anyway.

It's time for the 2020 review with a small, very personal selection of the sets that I consider the most successful this year and a few boxes that I find of no great interest or on which I have several comments to make.

The most assiduous readers had noticed that I ignored this annual review in 2019. Indeed, I did not have much to say about the assortment offered by LEGO during the year and the LEGO Batman set. 76139 1989 Batmobile in my eyes had won first place in the top without having any real competition. Having already shouted a lot of my enthusiasm for this box as soon as it was announced and then during my "Review ", I preferred not to put on a layer so as not to seem to overdo it.

The year 2020 is more nuanced and I had a little trouble getting out a ranking of my favorite sets. In the LEGO Star Wars range, this is the set 75292 The Mandalorian Bounty Hunter Transport (The Razor Crest) which will have excited me the most this year. It is not the biggest box nor the most expensive of the assortment marketed in 2020 but it is the one that has reconciled me a little with a range that often just reinterprets existing products. Series The Mandalorian broadcast on the Disney + platform was an excellent surprise even if it has its flaws and this derivative product is a real blow to a range that has been purring a little too much in recent years.

As for the LEGO Marvel and DC Comics ranges, there are only two boxes that really caught my attention this year: the set 76157 Wonder Woman vs. Cheetah whose content is ultimately nothing very exciting but it is the beautiful packaging very different from what LEGO usually offers that convinced me and the set 76161 1989 Bat Wing because I'm a fan of the 1989 film and the machine deserved to be entitled to its LEGO version, even if it is a little less successful than the Batmobile of 2019.

I'm sure many fans will mention the set 10274 Ghostbusters ECTO-1 among their favorite products of 2020, but I won't. I have never been an absolute fan of the franchise and by extension this very successful vehicle is not a priority in my collection.

Like many of you, I classify the set 71374 Nintendo Entertainment System among my 2020 tops, although I'm pretty sure it's not for the right reasons. This is indeed the subject that far outweighs the achievement and nostalgia has done its job. By being more objective, I would have gladly contented myself with a reproduction of the NES at 80 euros without the (too) vintage TV that came with it.

In the LEGO Ideas universe, I have to admit that most of the sets released this year left me unmoved: the set 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay, with its strong homage to a range that I have never really played with, did not awaken in me the nostalgia that LEGO was seeking to provoke by turning away in the frank passage of the initial project and the set 21323 Grand Piano is far from the interactive product that I thought I could get. Its polished aesthetic does not in my eyes compensate for its really ridiculous "playability" which boils down to listening to audio tracks on a smartphone or typing at random on the keys of the instrument, taking yourself for a virtuoso. Fortunately, the representation of the ISS of the set 21321 International Space Station managed to convince me and this model is a beautiful object of exhibition which joined my collection.

I'm not a fan of the Harry Potter universe, so I didn't have to rack my brains to find space for the new Hogwarts expansions released this year. I also sympathize with those who collect the entire range, I know what it's like to buy certain products without great interest so as not to regret one day having missed out and to pay for them at the price. strong in the secondary market. It would be inappropriate for me to criticize the current development by LEGO of the Harry Potter universe while I collect products from ranges like Star Wars or Marvel which are models of the genre.

In the range of products that seemed to me to be really below what one is entitled to expect from a leading toy manufacturer in its market and which clearly displays a high-end positioning: The LEGO Technic set 42109 App-Controlled Top Gear Rally Car with its shapeless vehicle wrapped in a popular license and its disappointing performance, the set 10271 Fiat 500 with a car that looks like a lot but not quite a Fiat 500 and the Iron Man helmet from the set 76165 Iron Man Helmet which probably never should have been marketed as is.

It is not really a flop in my eyes but I am still very reserved about the sets of the LEGO ART range with their scripted mosaics without any real challenge at 120 € each and the final result very uneven depending on the references. I already have enough LEGO products in my life, I don't need to hang a few more on the walls.

Same observation for the Colosseum in the set 10276 Colosseum : I understand the show of force and all the potential in terms of communication that results from it, but I remain convinced that this product was not "necessary" for this format and at this price.

I deliberately refrain from passing judgment on universes intended for the youngest, for example I have no affinity with the LEGO Super Mario concept or the Hidden Side range but I am not the target of these products which have clearly found their public: the Starter Pack 71360 Adventures with Mario Caracole for example at the top of sales this year.

In short, 2020 has been a busy year in big sets, in tribute to different universes and licenses and in new and innovative concepts. Everyone will have found something to have fun among the many sets marketed and this is the essential. There will be as many reviews as there are fans, you have mine so I'm waiting to hear what your favorite sets of 2020 are in the comments.

We continue with the other set of the very "fresh"  Botanical Collection which will be launched in January 2021 by LEGO: the reference 10280 Flower Bouquet which allows, as the title indicates, to assemble what to compose a bouquet of different varieties of flowers using the 756 pieces provided.

On the program for this bouquet: two daisies, three roses, a California poppy flower, two snapdragons, a lavender plant and a blue peony aster. These flowers are accompanied by three leaves and two small decorative bushes. No vase to build in the box, LEGO only provides the content, not the container.

The assembly of the set is completed in an hour with a few repetitive phases depending on the number of identical flowers, it's a bit short to really relax or unwind after a tiring day of young dynamic executive. Strictly speaking, there are no really original techniques here, it is above all the diverted use of certain parts that makes the exercise interesting.

This set is also a bit like a vegetable car show with many elements whose primary purpose is not to embody petals or receptacles. Seven copies of the ECTO-1 steering wheel in Dark Green and twelve car hoods are used here alongside more generic parts or representing vegetation. There are also three Pteranodon wings and three surfboards that take on the role of leaves.

The stems of some of these plants are Technic flexible axes in Sand green which can be "shortened" by removing the sub-assemblies threaded at the end. This possibility will eventually make it possible to create volume and to distribute the different elements of the bouquet according to the diameter of the vase used.

Rose, blue peony aster, California poppy and snapdragon seem very successful to me. The lavender plant seems to me on the other hand a little rough and the two daisies lack in my opinion of finish at the level of the length of the petals. I also found the three decorative leaves a bit too massive to really blend in with the bouquet but it is possible to minimize the effect by carefully organizing the composition.

Those who swear by the availability of certain pieces in new colors will be delighted by discovering the contents of this box with in particular a beautiful assortment of elements in Light Nougat ou in Sand green.

Some of the flowers are very fragile, so it will be necessary to handle this bouquet with care before finding a place for it on a shelf or on the dresser in the living room and regularly dusting the various flowers will probably be a very tedious exercise. It will also be necessary to find the right vase so that the bouquet is pleasing to the eye without appearing too hungry and without having to resolve to invest in a second copy of the set or in one of the "extensions" already announced, the sets. 40460 Roses (120 - 12.99 €) and 40461 ​​Tulips (111 - € 9.99).

As for the bonsai of the set 10281 Bonsai Tree (878 - 49.99 €), we could debate the interest of exhibiting plastic flowers. There are already a lot of plastic products out there that more or less convincingly imitate houseplants or flowers and I personally find that really very kitsch. Here it is a little different and you get something more stylized that does not aim to make us believe that these are real fresh flowers.

The exercise was not easy but LEGO is doing quite well with this product which manages to put elements that are not always very "graceful" in the service of a bouquet with an original aesthetic. From there to spending 50 € to install these plastic flowers in my living room, there is however a step that I will not take. Flowers are ephemeral, they live and die, this is what makes them interesting and which reminds them that it is time to replace them or to offer new ones.

Note: The set presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 8th January 2021 next at 23pm. "The" I try, I participate "are automatically deleted, make an effort.

Update : The winner was drawn and was notified by email, his nickname is indicated below. Without a response from him to my request for contact details within 5 days, a new winner will be drawn.