My LEGO 2020 review: my tops and my flops

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.