Let's take a quick look at the minifigs and other minifigures that the LEGO Star Wars 2018 Advent Calendar (LEGO P / N 75213) has got us getting so far.

I will spare you all the mini-things to build that do not call for unnecessary essays. You put them together, you try to recognize what they are, you put them in the back of a drawer and you forget them.

First minifigure provided in box N ° 2: Rose tico in the version seen in the set 75176 Resistance Transport Pod (€ 39.99) released in 2017. If you don't like this character and boycotted set 75176, you now have a cheaper copy. If, on the contrary, you adore Rose Tico and the set 75176 is already at home, you now have two copies in your collection. It's that simple.

By the way, there is nothing to gargle about the relative rarity of this minifigure. Just because a minifigure only appears in one set does not mean that it can be considered "rare", especially if this box is sold at a reasonable price.

Case N ° 5: A Bounty Hunter figurine GI-88 in a version already available in sets 75167 Bounty Hunter Speeder Bike Battle Pack (14.99 €) marketed since 2017 and 75222 Betrayal at Cloud City (349.99 €) launched this year. Okay.

Box N ° 8: One BattleDroid generic as you must already have buckets in your drawers. With a blaster. We could have hoped for better than such a basic figure and it would have been enough to pad print a grade or a detail to make it a unique and exclusive figure. But no.

Box N ° 11: Rowan freemaker, already seen in the set 75185 Tracker I (76.99 €) marketed since 2017. This character appears in the animated series LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures. Many of you have probably never watched this ad disguised as an animated series (or vice versa) without much interest. It was for the youngest. Offer the minifigure to a young fan of the Star Wars universe, in return he will explain to you who Rowan is.

Box N ° 15: One Death trooper already available in two copies in the set 75165 Imperial Trooper Battle Pack (14.99 €) marketed in 2017. If you are a fan of the film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and that you like to accumulate Troopers of all kinds, you have undoubtedly already invested in several copies of the Battle Pack in question but thanks to this Advent calendar, you now have one more Death Trooper.

In summary, nothing exclusive or very exciting for the moment in this Advent calendar 2018 which is also currently sold. 23.09 € instead of 32.99 € on the LEGO Shop.

Now that everyone has had time to digest the announcement of the new Structure 2019, the LEGO Creator Expert set 10264 Corner Garage (189.99 €), we can quickly talk about this building that will stick to the Downtown Diner from set 10260 for a neighborhood with a 50s atmosphere.

Small neighborhood garage with a single gas pump, upstairs veterinary practice and apartment above with direct access to the roof, on paper this set offers varied spaces with services that will be welcome in your LEGO city.

If you collect the Modulars, you will not hesitate very long anyway, you will need this one too. If you don't have any, it's not certain that this set is the best place to start.

First of all, I note that the building actually occupies only a large half of the base plate on which it is installed due to the presence of the gas station and the canopy that houses the gas pump. It is also a set at an incoming angle which constitutes a street corner and can therefore take place in a corner of a shelf attached to the walls on two sides. There isn't much to see behind the construction anyway, as is often the case on Modulars.

If you want to play with the garage lift, remember to leave a little space behind the set to be able to access the mechanism that allows the thing to be raised and lowered. just pull on the blue and black element visible in the photo above to activate this function. Nothing super exciting, but to wow your passing friends even more, you can always leave a vehicle permanently in the garage with the bridge up and the curtain up.

It is a constant of the range Modulars, the construction phase alternates between truly creative sequences and stacking bricks for the walls of the building. We are not bored and we discover in passing a few tips that will perhaps be useful one day such as the cornices or the canopies of the upper floors based on blue windshields. When assembling the two upper modules, it is difficult not to have a feeling of déjà vu over the pages, the exterior structure of the two levels being almost identical from one floor to the other.

The bags of the set being numbered, it is possible to share the assembly with several on the condition of having the instruction booklet in digital format (to download at this address as soon as the PDF is online) in addition to the one provided in the box. Everyone can assemble a section during a family and friendly activity.

The whole set ultimately only serves as a pretext to install a garage on the ground floor, with its gas station and small workshop. It really is a tiny neighborhood garage, but the designer still managed to install a lift, a tire changer, a tool console and a counter on which the cash register is located. It's all a bit crowded inside, but it's always like that with Modulars and this one is far from the worst of the range in terms of size.

The staircase which provides access to the veterinarian's office located on the first floor, from the small blue door with its paw-shaped handle, simply crosses the workshop without any partition wall. To get to the apartment on the second floor, you must also cross the waiting room of the veto's office and there is no door (or hatch) between the two floors. Those who find nothing to complain about will persuade themselves that the vet is the mechanic's brother and that it is he who lives above with his ex-brother-in-law. The others will have to do with or lay plasterboard.

The garage is run by Jo, as the sign indicates. He is assisted by a female character with a smeared face who must be his daughter. Or his niece. Or her daughter-in-law. Or whoever you want.

In passing, one may wonder if the choice of the garage / veto / apartment combination is the most judicious. Having to go through the workshop to get to the first floor could have prompted the designer to set up the boss's office upstairs and move the vet's office to the second floor. But in this case, it would have been necessary anyway to go through the offices to go to the vet. Failed, this stair system is really poorly designed.

Access to the workshop is closed by a sliding curtain which can be raised using the dial placed on the exterior wall. The mechanism is simple but very ingenious and the dial is discreet enough not to disfigure the construction.

The roller shutter elements are slid in a groove which serves as a guide and prevents derailments. Like everyone else, you will spend five minutes raising and lowering the curtain. It's fun and it always works if you haven't made a mistake while assembling the mechanism.

If the floor is covered with Tiles on the exterior part of the construction, the interior of the various spaces is left as is by the designer. You will tell me that it does not change much since most of the fans who will acquire this box will be content to display it on a shelf and we will not really see what happens inside. And you will be right. But it's ugly due to the scale of the surfaces and furniture. The studs seem huge and that's a shame.

Many pieces of furniture and other decorative elements are present and some of them are even very successful. This set does not reach the level of finish of other references in the same range but it is still very honest if we take into account the available interior space.

At the vet, in addition to the aquarium built into the wall, we get a few animals and a whole series of medical instruments. It's in the theme and if you like techniques that allow you to reproduce stuff with a limited number of pieces, you'll be served.

I couldn't resist the urge to take the toilet out of the small corner room of the studio on the second floor. I would like to point out that the flush is not attached to the white pipe on which it rests, it is in fact directly attached to the wall of the apartment. In the photo below, she balances on the white mat.

Oddly, the second floor studio has a toilet in one corner of the room, but no bathroom, however compact. The bed installed near the glass roof also leaves me rather perplexed: it looks more like a hospital bed than anything else. The rest of the furniture is quite successful, always with that 50s connotation. Special mention for the taps, blue for cold water, red for hot water, which remind me of memories of my youth.

The roof terrace is also designed with exposed tenons. Too bad for the finish of this space which is clearly visible from the outside. A floor covered with Tiles gray with some hints of dark green and brown to symbolize the degradation of the coating over time would have been very welcome.

I have nothing against studs, but when it comes to a detailed mockup intended primarily for exhibition, I prefer not to see too many of them. In the radius of the things I would have liked to have obtained here: A cylindrical water tank on the roof.

As with the limousine from the 10260 Downtown Diner set, LEGO is providing a vehicle here, to liven up the city streets a bit. The tow truck is successful, it is in the 50s spirit of the box and it will find its place in all urban contexts. The doors open, the tow arm is raised or lowered via the wheel placed at the rear, it's functional. LEGO could have cracked a pad printing on the doors with the logo of the garage sign.

LEGO also provides a scooter in Medium Azure and his pilot who takes the torso already seen in the LEGO CITY set 60202 People Pack: Outdoor Adventures. Not essential in this box, but since it's there ...

A second vehicle to troubleshoot and put on the lift would have been welcome to ensure maximum playability out of the box without relying on the fact that fans have already purchased the 10260 set and therefore have the pink limousine which is from elsewhere staged on the back of the box of this new set.

I know many fans consider the parts allocated to these vehicles to "penalize" the level of detail of the set by cannibalizing inventory. But if LEGO sells me a garage with a lift, I would love to be able to use it to lift something other than the tow truck ...

As you already know, there are no stickers in this box and all the signs are pad printed. The Octan brand is displayed on the gas pump, supported by the use of the fictitious company's usual colors on the garage walls, the vet has a sign that references the world of Indiana Jones and Jo's garage sign includes a funny slogan under the half tire. These little details aren't everything, but they're finishes that are generally popular with fans.

In summary, we like it or not, each to his own. I like the petrol station theme and the color Dark orange used for the walls of the floors. I like a little less the lack of finish in the cabinet of the veto and in the apartment, LEGO had accustomed us to better.

The sacrifice of nearly half of the available surface does not bother me more than that, it was the price to pay to offer something really original with the gas pump and the passage covered by a canopy.

The vehicle provided is successful, the minifig endowment is unsurprising but sufficient. 189.99 € is a bit expensive, so in my opinion it is appropriate to wait at least for a doubling of VIP points or a promo to invest in this new element of the vintage district of LEGOville.

Note: The set shown here is put into play as usual. To participate in the raffle, simply post a comment on this article before December 15 at 23:59 p.m.. You have every right to disagree with me, this is not eliminatory.

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.

As the set is already available from Amazon and currently for pre-order from LEGO with delivery from December 1st, it's time to take a quick look at the LEGO Star Wars reference. 75251 Darth Vader's Castle (1060 pieces - 129.99 €).

This box reproduces the fortress of Darth Vader on the planet Mustafar, a disturbing construction built on an ancient Sith cave that makes a brief appearance in the film. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and which is also featured in some comics.

Note that the set is also and above all a promotional tool inspired by Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, a new Star Wars virtual reality experience developed by ILMxLAB which will be available in certain cinemas, amusement parks and hotels around the world from the end of the year.

What makes all the charm of this box is in my opinion the double scale of the giant tuning fork of about forty centimeters high with on one side a compact but visually convincing reproduction of the construction and on the other a dollhouse like LEGO knows how to do them so well with its spaces too narrow to really benefit from it. Each fan will find his account there according to what he expects from this box.

The front of the fortress will really make an illusion on a shelf, as if placed on a rock and with the lava flow passing through its foundations. It is not as majestic as the construction seen in the film, but it is quite successful and it changes us from playsets that are a little poor in scenery.

On the other side of this movie set, LEGO has piled up everything near and far can refer to Darth Vader and his fortress with in passing some creative freedoms such as the integration of a meditation room in the 2nd floor...

Under the fortress, Vader even has a hangar in which the Tie Advanced Fighter provided. This shed is also useful for the storage of the assembly even if it really lacks a base plate to facilitate the movement of the construction.

Gameplay question, it's complicated. It takes patience and skill to successfully place Darth Vader in his meditation chamber or in the Bacta Tank. Fortunately, the latter is removable which facilitates the installation of the minifig in the blue tank. More radical if you have big fingers, just remove one of the side panels to give yourself a little more space and have fun replicating a few scenes.

There are no real features in this box, apart from the Stud Shooter placed at the very top of the fortress and the two hatches hidden in the depths which reveal a Saber Crystal and a lightsaber handle.

The platform placed at the top of the fortress on which Vader and Krennic exchange a few words in Rogue One comes down here to a small round plate on which we stick a big sticker. It is a very "symbolic" representation of places, but we will do with it.

The Tie Advanced Fighter supplied is a version Chibi of the ship in which Darth Vader is a little cramped and which will bring back memories to those who already have the versions seen in the sets 10188 Death Star (2008) et 75159 Death Star (2016)

The ship is to scale to nothing, it's just designed to fit into the hangar beneath the fortress before Darth Vader casually steps up the outside staircase to his quarters.

As for the assortment of minifigs provided, it is rather correct even if I would have appreciated the presence of Orson Krennic or Vaneé, the servant of Darth Vader seen in Rogue One. But we'll do with what LEGO gives us here: A little new, some minifigs already seen elsewhere, it's balanced.

Both Royal guards provided here are far from unheard of, the LEGO Star Wars range has already allowed us to accumulate a certain quantity, particularly via the small set 75034 Death Star Troopers (2014). The cape that dresses these two minifigs is in two colors with a darker red on one side and a bright red on the other, as was already the case in the 75159 Death Star set.

When unpacking, we wonder what the Imperial Transport Pilot does in this box. It's on the VR experience side Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire that must be sought to find the trace of Athex, a rebel spy disguised as an imperial pilot whose career ends on Mustafar. Why not, even if this character will remain anecdotal in the eyes of many fans.

For those who are wondering, the character's helmet is based on the same mold as the two Hovertank Pilots in the set. 75152 Imperial Assault Hovertank (2016) based on the movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Darth Vader is delivered here in two versions: In his usual outfit already seen in the set 75093 Death Star Final Duel (2015) and in a "Bacta Tank" version with a respirator whose pad printing is really very detailed. He is the minifig-star of this box.

I forgot. Palpatine makes an appearance in this set in the form of a statuette depicting the hologram plotting with Darth Vader.

To put it simply, I think this box has some nice points to make despite the tote side of the interior of the playset. This is a new, worked and original product that explores a little more the universe of Darth Vader and just for that I say yes.

At 129.99 €, it is in my opinion a bit expensive, however, especially with a small assortment of minifigs. Amazon has already cut the price of this set at 89.90 € during Black Friday (and will do it again regularly ...) which immediately makes it more attractive, provided you have patience.

Note: The set shown here is put into play as usual. To participate in the raffle, simply post a comment on this article before December 9 at 23:59 p.m.. You have every right to disagree with me, this is not eliminatory.

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 quickly interested in the LEGO Creator Expert set 10268 Vestas Wind Turbine (826 pieces) which for the modest sum of 179.99 € allows you to join from 23 November 2018 the 17000 employees of the Vestas brand who were offered in 2008 this imposing advertising object bearing the reference 4999.

In fact, apart from a few details, these two sets are identical and that of 2008 was free except for those who agreed to buy it back for around € 400 from employees who are not very sensitive to the joys of construction based on plastic bricks.

One can also wonder if this box really deserves its place in the LEGO Creator Expert range, with its 826 pieces, its construction techniques from another age and its somewhat sloppy finish. LEGO could have launched a range called "Legacy"for these re-editions of sets, as is the case in the LEGO Ninjago 2019 range, to classify these boxes in a tribute series without any other pretensions.

You might as well tell you right away, this one meter high wind turbine does not produce electricity. On the contrary, it consumes it. It is paradoxical but it is like that. To stir up some air, LEGO provides a set of elements Power Functions which will obviously have to be supplied with half a dozen batteries. The cables are rather well hidden in the base and in the pillar of the wind turbine. The whole is an illusion.

The bad idea: to use the LEDs supplied to illuminate the entrance to the cabin rather than to reproduce the light markings placed at the top of the real wind turbines ... The effect would have been much more interesting, especially for lovers of dioramas. The LEGO designer preferred to propose a solution that very simply highlights the production of electricity by the wind turbine. It's logical and understandable, the whole set is an ecological pamphlet to which the few trees made from bio-polyethylene come to contribute.

These three trees have also created confusion with some media who have wrongly claimed that LEGO produces a set here, all of the parts of which are in bio-polyethylene made from the distillation of sugar cane. It is not so.

The detail that shocks me here is the presence of a house right at the foot of the wind turbine. This is obviously totally inconsistent but we will do with it because we had to show us what we do with the electricity produced by this type of installation. Reissue requires, here we are entitled to this cabin worthy of a set from the 70s which is not really the level of what we can expect at LEGO in 2018.

We can see it as a tribute to the first LEGO constructions but I still consider that the manufacturer could have made the effort to update the previous version to make it aesthetically compatible with other LEGO Creator sets of the moment.

This set is, like the reference 4999, an advertising object, for the Vestas brand whose logo appears on the box, on the wind turbine, on the maintenance van and even very large on the torso of the two employees. And that's without counting all the promo for the brand distilled over the pages of the instruction booklet.

I said it before, but I would have preferred a product in the colors of the (fictitious) Octan brand. In this case, LEGO could have boasted of bringing its own brands into an era where respect for the environment matters a little more than before.

The minifigs of the two employees of the Vestas company are also simple promotional items. No effort has been made on the torso and legs, LEGO is limited to pad printing a huge blue V on each of the characters, probably to pay tribute to the stickers in set 4999.

Another point of detail that annoys me, the extreme flexibility of the green base plate provided. It is time for LEGO to market slightly more rigid plates, even if it means that they are a little thicker, to allow the movement of the content they support more easily. By the way, if you did not know, the base plates are not manufactured directly by LEGO but by an Austrian subcontractor, the Greiner company which has factories pretty much everywhere LEGO has a presence.

In short, the only real good news here is that LEGO shows once again that no set is really safe from a reissue and that with a little patience it is possible to offer some past references at a more reasonable price than on the secondary market. Unfortunately, I remain convinced that many fans would have preferred to get a revisited version of this box rather than a simple reissue.

In short, if you like sets with a little vintage look, you will find what you are looking for here and for half the price of the aftermarket. Otherwise, you can go your way, this set is in my opinion a bulky (and noisy) paid advertising product which is far from highlighting all the know-how of the brand.

Note: The set shown here is put into play as usual. To participate in the raffle, simply post a comment on this article before December 2 at 23:59 p.m.. You have every right to disagree with me, this is not eliminatory.

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.

If you hesitate to invest in the French version of the second Ninjago volume of the collection "Build Your Own Adventure", today I offer you a quick overview of what this big box has to offer for € 26.95.

As for the other titles in the collection, we find here the very thick cardboard box in which slip the 80-page booklet and the cardboard insert which contains the 72 pieces supplied. This illustrated sub-packaging which houses the bag of parts could possibly serve as a background for a staging.

On the menu, what to assemble a hover-bike "exclusive" which transforms into a motorbike and a minifig of Nya which is not unpublished, it is the one delivered in the set 70641 Ninja Nightcrawler released this year, the skirt and the epaulet less. If you are a complete collector, know that the parts are delivered in a neutral sealed bag bearing the reference 11915.

The model to build is nice but nothing exceptional, it could also have been found in a large polybag sold for a handful of euros. Fortunately, this set has a little more to offer and the booklet is full of building ideas. I have scanned several pages for you so that you can get a more precise idea of ​​the content offered.

Please note, this is not a simple collection of assembly instructions, only those allowing to assemble the hover-bike de Nya are provided and for those who are wondering, they are really on the level of what LEGO offers in classic sets.

There is also a rather well-done little lexicon on two pages which summarizes the main elements of the LEGO bricks range. A little pedagogy never hurts.

The adventure of young ninjas unrolled as a common thread serves, as usual in this collection of books, as a pretext for the staging of mini-models that the youngest can try to reproduce with their inventory.

The book features many villains encountered by young ninjas over the seasons: Anacondra, Phantom Warriors, Sky Pirates, Vermillion and even Sons of Garmadon, almost everyone is there.

It is not always easy to analyze the mini-constructions presented, but a few exploded views allow us to better understand the complexity of some of the proposed assemblies. It is also an opportunity for the youngest to call on an adult and therefore to share a moment with their children, nephews or nieces, for those who have them.

It is important to specify that all the mini-models presented have been validated by LEGO so that the techniques used and the level of difficulty are adapted to young audiences. We are obviously a little bit hungry with only 80 pages of text and (big) photos, especially when we see that this is all that is left of the thick starter set.

It is still in my opinion a good idea for a gift for a young fan of the Ninjago universe who will have already widely covered what LEGO offers and who is looking for new ideas to expand his diorama using this box set as a starting point for new creative constructions.

In the same collection, the publisher Qilinn, which is responsible for the localization in French of the works published by Dorling Kindersley, also has in its catalog several other boxes including a first volume based on the Ninjago universe and the first volume based on the 'Star Wars universe:

[amazon box="2374931048, 2374930459, 2374930041" grid="3"]

Note: The box presented here is, as usual, involved. To participate in the raffle, simply post a comment on this article before November 25 at 23:59 p.m.. You have every right to disagree with me, this is not eliminatory.

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.