Today we go very quickly around the contents of the LEGO set 40649 Up-Scaled LEGO Minifigure, a box of 654 pieces which will be available on the official online store and in LEGO Stores from June 1, 2023 at the retail price of €49.99.

You already know it if you follow, this figurine to build takes the format of those of the LEGO Harry Potter sets 76393 Harry Potter & Hermione Granger et 40504 A Minifigure Tribute. LEGO would be wrong not to decline until more thirsty this format which allows you to display at home an oversized minifig which retains a certain mobility and which allows you to display your passion for LEGO products without doing too much and with a little effort. 'originality.

The construction process for this minifigure, which is actually a reproduction of the one installed at the entrance to the LEGO premises in Billund, is identical to that of the two students from the Harry Potter range and anyone who already has the relevant set in their collection will therefore be on familiar ground.

This 27 cm high figurine, however, reserves a little surprise under the character's cap with a small staging that features a minifig at the controls as if it were a robot here that would be piloted by its owner.

It's nicely integrated with a hinged cupola that opens to let your friends enjoy this hidden detail, but don't expect any mechanism that would act on the whole construction, the gears present are purely decorative.

The main defect of this figurine is also that of its congeners: I find that the lower part of the character's face is missed with a retracting chin which really struggles to convince, even if on this one the generic graphics of the face attenuates this feeling a little face with incorrect proportions.

The figurine offered here also has a defect directly linked to its appearance: under certain lighting, we notice some differences in color between the different red and blue parts, LEGO obviously not always managing to perfectly homogenize its production.

For the rest, the construction phase is interesting with some pretty techniques to discover and a result that will appeal to all those who do not necessarily want to display large gray ships or an overly bulky castle in their office or living room but who want everything even show their love of brick by the presence of an emblematic construction.

The public price of the thing seems almost reasonable to me for this product which will make a nice gift to offer to a fan too busy to complete his collection of licensed sets and who will perhaps miss this figurine or who will not make one not a top priority in this very busy launch period.

Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 7th June 2023 next at 23:59 p.m. Just post a comment under the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion. 

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

Today we are quickly interested in the content of the LEGO Marvel set 76258 Captain America Building Figure, a box of 310 pieces that will be available on the official online store and in LEGO Stores from June 1st at the retail price of €37.99.

The articulated figurine is quickly assembled, no stickers and we get here some pad-printed elements such as the shield, the star which is placed on the character's chest as well as the face of Captain America and the two patterns placed on the sides of his mask . By being really indulgent, I think this figurine is a little more successful than the Wolverine one I was telling you about a few days ago.

Let's not get carried away, she also has her faults with four-fingered hands, a too pale face whose color is not fitting with that of the fingers and a facial expression which resembles that of a mini-doll from the range Friends. I would have preferred that Captain America sketch a real rictus, story that the face of the character is matched to the different dynamic poses that the figurine can adopt via its different points of articulation.

The figurine's head is still disappointing in its construction with a slightly strange shape, an obvious lack of volume at the neck and a connection ball that remains far too visible. This articulated doll of a little over 20cm high is obviously intended for children, but that is not a reason to limit the efforts so much on the aesthetic level.

It's almost a shame that the head is so sloppy, the rest being acceptable with a look rather consistent with the character's usual physique. the pretty shield can either be fixed on the left hand or on the back of Captain America via the pine planned, the solution is effective even if it will be necessary to resolve to always have one of the two pins clearly visible on the back of the hand or on the back.

In short, nothing to marvel at this figurine which will perhaps delight the youngest, it is in my opinion too expensive for what it is and the few minutes spent assembling it are not enough to donate for €38. I'm not worried, this type of set sooner or later ends up in destocking at a bargain price somewhere and those who want to get the pretty pad-printed shield can then afford this box for much less.

Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 30th May 2023 next at 23:59 p.m. Just post a comment under the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion. 

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 Marvel set 76260 Black Widow & Captain America Motorcycles, a small box of 130 pieces which will be available on the official online store and in LEGO Stores at the public price of €15.99 from June 1, 2023. The title of the product is sufficiently explicit, it is a question here of assembling two machines with their respective owners. The 130 parts of the product leave no room for doubt, the two motorcycles are made up of a handful of parts.

The designer is doing quite well on arrival, however, with two relatively detailed and sufficiently different machines for one or the other of these frames to be associated with its owner. Both machines are based on the same chassis and a few decorative pieces take care of the aesthetic variations so that Captain America and Black Widow ride different motorcycles and roughly conform to the versions seen on screen.

If Black Widow can hold the handlebars of her motorcycle with both hands by precisely adjusting the angle of the "handles" this is not the case for Captain America who is embarrassed by the new Tile with the counters placed between the seat and the handlebars. Too bad that the two handlebars are designed like this, the two parts used tend to easily come off their support.

The children will find their account there, there is enough fun even if it will be necessary to obtain some bad guys on whom to shoot with the Stud Shooters integrated into the sides of the two motorcycles. If you have a feeling of deja vu with these two motorcycles, it's normal, they take up the principle of those delivered in the LEGO DC set 76179 Batman & Selina Kyle Motorcycle Pursuit (2022)

On the side of the two characters provided, LEGO recycles here the minifig of Captain America already seen in the set 76189 Captain America and HYDRA Face-Off (2021) and provides a never-before-seen minifig of Black Widow that reuses the usual head and hair. The figurine is nicely pad-printed, we even avoid the flesh-colored area often present at the level of the neck, which in any case would not have been completely in line with the character's head because of the black background of the torso. The outfit worn here by the character is generally consistent with that seen in the film Avengers: Age of Ultron, it may be missing some patterns on the arms to refine the figure.

In short, this unpretentious derivative product is a simple toy for children, there is nothing here to satisfy the thirst of the most seasoned collectors knowing that the Black Widow figurine will undoubtedly be delivered in a future more substantial set. So it's up to you to see if you just need this new figure or if you prefer to wait for a few extra minifigs and a handful of bricks to go with it all.

The two motorcycles delivered here are both a little coarse but easily identifiable and the two figurines provided are interesting, it's always taken. 16 € for only two figurines, it is obviously now the price to pay at LEGO, we will do with it.

Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 27th May 2023 next at 23:59 p.m. Just post a comment under the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion. 

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

Today we are quickly interested in the content of the LEGO Marvel set 76257 Wolverine Construction Figure, a box of 327 pieces which will be available on the official online store and in LEGO Stores at the retail price of €37.99 from June 1, 2023.

I'm not going to make the suspense last too long, I find this figure loosely inspired by the version of the character seen in the X-Men '97 animated series simply missed. If you have read my review of the figurine delivered in the set 76256 Ant-Man Construction Figure available since May 1st, you already know what I think of the format proposed here.

In use, we come to wonder if the compromise used is in fact unfortunately located between the two sizes ideally suited for these articulated dolls. : it's too big to convince with the many aesthetic shortcuts that probably save some parts to stay in the price range and it's also too small to allow a sufficient level of detail in order not to make these constructions robots rather than humans.

This being said, the problem of this Wolverine is in my opinion elsewhere: it is his head which seems to me really missed. It is not correctly positioned on the torso and it does not really have the shape of a head. And that's without counting on the totally missed detail which would have required very special care: the junction between the ears and the eyes of the character's mask.

We go from a black pad printing to a stack of parts which seems to me not very credible and I do not see how to show indulgence on this level. The intention is there but the execution does not follow and it is the whole appearance of the character which is ruined with this head too big for the torso on which it is fixed and these two very coarse excrescences.

No stickers in this box but we are not going to consider this detail as a favor either, at 38 € the product is intended to be handled until more thirsty by children who are not necessarily always very careful, that's the least we can do .

For the rest, it will be necessary to make do with the various connection points which remain clearly visible, the limited mobility due to the abutment points of the decorative elements placed on the limbs, the claws that are too long and too wide or even the finesse of the size and of the character's abdomen which are far from embodying what we see on screen in the series.

The youngest will perhaps find their account there, they will consider that the character of a good twenty centimeters in height is all the same recognizable and that it offers some playful possibilities. Provided that their parents resign themselves to spending €38 on this derivative product. On the other hand, this wolverine does not deserve the honors of a collector's shelf in my opinion, except perhaps while waiting for a hypothetical high-end bust or a much more accomplished figurine.

Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 26th May 2023 next at 23:59 p.m. Just post a comment under the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion. 

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

Today we need a quick tour of the content of the LEGO Star Wars set 75355 Ultimate Collector Series X-wing Starfighter, a box of 1949 pieces which will be available as a VIP preview from May 1, 2023 at the public price of €239.99 before global availability announced for May 4.

In the bags, enough to assemble a new exhibition version of the X-wing which will finally take over from that of the set 10240 Red Five X-Wing Starfighter (1558 pieces) marketed between 2013 and 2015 at the retail price of €219.99.

If the X-wing regularly makes the heyday of the LEGO Star Wars range via many products intended for the youngest, this emblematic ship of the Star Wars universe is now what we could call a chestnut tree in the section. Ultimate Collector Series with three different interpretations on the counter.

This new version of 55 cm long by 44 cm wide is indeed the third in 23 years since the launch of the set 7191 X-wing Fighter (1304 pieces) in 2000 and if the version of the set 10240 Red Five X-Wing Starfighter only took over after 13 years from a first interpretation which had aged badly, it still delights many fans and collectors today. The 2023 version of this ship should therefore in principle take advantage of all the evolution of the LEGO inventory and associated techniques to try to renew the genre and bring its share of notable improvements.

I won't give you the details of the whole process of building the product, the photos available below speak for themselves and I hope you will keep all the pleasure of discovering the different techniques at work here. Just know that the mechanism for deploying the wings is for this time of a rather surprising simplicity with an easily accessible wheel placed on the cabin of the ship and two rubber bands.

I'm still a little distressed to see that LEGO persists in using these consumables on high-end models sold at full price knowing that the manufacturer does not even make the effort to slip a set of two replacement rubber bands into the box. The manipulation of the cam mechanism requires a little force and some creaks are heard but it is a pure exhibition product and the functionality will remain anecdotal once you have chosen the configuration that suits you. The junction between the two pairs of wings is not perfect in flight mode and you will have to help the mechanism a little by pressing on the two pairs with your hands to put them horizontally, you will have to be satisfied with that. No landing gear.

The cabin is made up of a few sub-assemblies to be fixed on side clips and there are clearly visible spaces all along the hull. It was probably the price to pay to obtain angles conforming to the reference ship and a shape of the front section a little more realistic than that of the previous model. More embarrassing for me, the duckbill effect of the nose of the ship at the end a little too flat reinforced by the space visible on both sides at the junction between the two sections which meet at the end. The set seems to me visually a little too clumsy and I preferred the previous solution which I found much more elegant.

The wings of the X-wing, which may seem a little short to some and which are in my opinion a little too "disconnected" from the fuselage frankly letting the integrated mechanism appear, have benefited from a very appreciable care with sufficient thickness and a skin on the inside that makes them less stark when deployed. The balance between visible tenons and smooth surfaces on the entire model seems convincing to me, you can see at first glance that it is indeed a LEGO product but the whole retains a certain elegance.

The presence of correctly sized air inlets for the engines is good news even if the three interior fins are simply wedged between a few tenons, the fact that the canopy is pad-printed is appreciable when one remembers the complex sticker supplied with the model of 2013, the inside of the wings benefits from a slightly more accomplished finish with a fixing on the body of the ship which is a little more discreet and the passage to pad printing for the exposure plate which includes some facts is obviously an interesting development.

The pad printing of the plate which presents some information about the vessel is well done but it reveals the large injection point placed in the middle of the element concerned. It will be difficult for LEGO to find a solution to this technical detail, the injection of this type of large part must allow a uniform distribution of the material in the mold and the positioning of the injection point is strategic. The solution proposed here is nevertheless still more interesting than the large sticker, difficult to position correctly supplied so far and which ages very badly under the effect of light and heat.

The display that allows you to stage this X-wing is well designed, it is rather discreet, the whole remains unfailingly stable and you can even place the ship in a diving position if your shelf is high. , just to admire the underside of the construction with its very basic finish. R2-D2 will remain in its housing, there is no space for the astromech droid on the display which can only accommodate the minifig of Luke Skywalker.

The product does not escape a small sheet of stickers, but the number of these stickers remains contained and those which take place in the cockpit are graphically very well executed. Too bad that these parts which will be exposed to the light are not pad printed, this high-end model intended for an adult public and sold for 240 € nevertheless deserved this effort.

The last visual of the second gallery above brings together the three versions of the X-Wing of the moment, I added that of the polybag 30654 X-wing Starfighter (87 pieces) which will be offered from May 1 to 7, 2023 from 40 € of purchase in products from the LEGO Star Wars range as well as that of 57 pieces from the bag supplied with April 2023 issue from the Official LEGO Star Wars Magazine. You currently have the choice according to your desires, your financial means and the space you have on your shelves.

As for the figurines provided, the new Luke Skywalker minifig benefits from all the technical refinements currently available at LEGO with legs injected in two colors and nice pad printing on the arms. the R2-D2 figurine with pad printing on both sides is not new, it is the one already seen in the LEGO Star Wars Diorama Collection set 75339 Death Star Trash Compactor marketed since last year.

It is also too small to convince when placed in the housing provided behind the cockpit, the dome of the version of the astromech droid seen in 2017 in the polybag 30611 R2-D2 could possibly have done the trick but it would then have been necessary to resolve to obtain only this element without the rest of the robot.

To tell you the truth, I'm a little torn after assembling this new X-wing: the model is generally in line with the reference ship when viewed from a certain distance, but there are still some finishing details that seem questionable to me. closer. LEGO strives to renew its aesthetic and technical choices with each new interpretation and this one combines good ideas with some approximations which in my opinion still do not make it the expected final version.

So much the worse for those who wanted to believe it, so much the better for those who collect all these boxes even if the subject treated is the same, there remains a certain margin of progression and evolution for the next version.

As an inveterate collector of the LEGO Star Wars range, I will be in line from May 1st to acquire this new version and take advantage of the various promotional offers announced. The version of the set 10240 Red Five X-Wing Starfighter However, it will remain my favorite this time around.

Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 6th May 2023 next at 23:59 p.m. Just post a comment under the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion. 

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