Today we are quickly interested in the content of the LEGO Ideas set 21332 The Globe, a product inspired by the project Earth globe submitted by Disneybrick55 (Guillaume Roussel) on the LEGO Ideas platform in early 2020 and approved in September 2020. A year and a half later, LEGO finally gives us the official and definitive version of the idea in question, with an inventory of 2585 pieces and a public price fixed at 199.99 €.

Unlike other "ideas" largely reworked, or even completely reinterpreted by LEGO, the official version of this globe remains very faithful to the original project, both in appearance and in the proportions of the object. After all, those who voted for this idea shouldn't be disappointed to get exactly what they showed their support for.

Personally, I was hoping on the contrary that the handling of the project by a designer from Billund would allow us to obtain a more successful product, but this is not really the case, apart from a few details. The initial idea is however very interesting and I was one of those who imagined that LEGO was going to put all its know-how to work to convince us that it is possible to make a beautiful round ball out of bricks. Even a year and a half later, it is not so. On the bright side: Guillaume Roussel will be able to autograph a box containing a product that visually conforms to the idea he proposed.

LEGO does not forget to throw a few flowers from the first pages of the instruction booklet by associating this product with its various initiatives in terms of environmental protection and, by extension, the planet. Why not, even if it is ultimately a plastic product delivered in a box too big for what it contains with a large handful of plastic bags and a large paper booklet. To go through with this discreet recovery of the product to promote its efforts, LEGO could have thrown in the box some of the new paper bags to replace the plastic ones, it was the perfect opportunity to introduce this evolution. logistics, hitherto reserved for the set 4002021 The (Ninjago) Temple of Celebrations offered this year to employees and partners of the group, to the general public.

As you can imagine, there is nothing really exciting about assembling this globe, which is neither perfectly round nor very smooth: it's a ball fixed on a support and we therefore spend our time reproducing the "slices" that successively constitute the surface of the object. Of the 16 sachets of the set, 4 are dedicated to the support, 3 to the central circle which is itself made up of identical sub-assemblies and 8 to the cover of the globe in small slices all identical in their design, with a variation on their decoration. depending on their position on the surface of the object. It's the product that wants it and it was logically difficult to escape the repetitive aspect of assembly but you will not have the best assembly experience of your life as a LEGO fan. For those wondering where the 2585 pieces of the set are, know that the cover of the globe only uses nearly 500 elements, the rest is in the support and the internal structure of which you will find an overview below.

The support is very convincing, it is aesthetically successful with a few touches of golden strapping sprinkled on a structure that imitates wood quite well. The vintage effect is there, we are in the theme. Things go a little wrong when it comes to moving on to the internal structure and the surface of the globe and this is where you really become aware of the very approximate adjustments between the different slices. This defect is obvious because we are in the process of assembling the product, it will fade a little when the globe is exposed and seen from a certain distance if the positioning of the clips which are used to connect the slices at the ends of the surface was perfectly executed.

The assembled product is solid and stable. It must be gripped by the base to avoid dropping a few plates, but the internal structure is well designed. Contrary to what some might imagine, the four wheels with their yellow rims and their tires are not involved in the rotation mechanism of the product, it is just a ballast that returns the globe to its predefined presentation position.

There are no stickers in this box and all patterned elements are therefore stamped. The oceans and continents are identified but you will not progress much in geography with this globe. The scale of the construction requires that the smallest continents be reduced to a few pieces that struggle a little to reproduce the usual curves of these terrestrial spaces. Once again, it will be necessary to take a step back and observe the object from a good distance so that the geographical simplification is less penalizing and that the identification of certain countries is possible, often by deduction. It should be noted in passing that Oceania is absent, LEGO only locating Australia in this area. The Arctic Ocean and the Southern Ocean are not identified.

The different small Tiles identification of continents and oceans are phosphorescent. It's not very interesting but it compensates for the impossibility of integrating internal lighting into the product as on the globes of our childhood, the external surfaces being matt. The typeface used by LEGO for these different elements seems to me a little off topic: The graphic designer has probably tried to obtain a vintage effect but we come close to Comic Sans and I find the result a bit disappointing. The fan designer of the product will at least have the satisfaction of having his initials present on the edge of the Dish white representing Antarctica (GR for Guillaume Roussel), you won't really see them when the product is assembled, but you will know it's there.

Beware of the finish defect sometimes encountered on the golden pieces, my copy of the set did not escape this problem (see photo below) but only a small 1x1 piece was concerned. Fortunately, LEGO provides many additional elements and I was able to replace the affected element. I was also missing a black piece which in principle fits on the upper part of the central axis.

The most demanding will take care to orient the cover plates and their green or beige overlay with the LEGO logo in the direction of the hemisphere concerned. I didn't have that patience but you only see tenons on arrival and it might be wise to think about this detail before starting assembly. There will remain the possibility of using these visible tenons to mark, for example, with the help of a small red piece, the different destinations visited by the owner of the object.

On arrival and as I said at the beginning of this review, we can't decently blame LEGO for having sabotaged the original idea. The official product is visually identical to the reference project and that, as far as I'm concerned, is the problem with this set. I find that LEGO confuses here "vintage", "kitsch" and "old-fashioned", notions that often overlap or are in any case very porous between them, with a rendering that generally sends me back to the 90s/2000s with their lots official sets that have often aged very badly. Too banal for vintage, too dated for LEGO.

The assortment of blue/green colors reinforces in my eyes this somewhat cheesy aspect of the object and the curves which are not really do not help, just like the empty spaces between the different sections. At 200 € the pure exhibition product intended for an adult clientele, in my opinion the whole thing frankly lacks finish and contrast between visible tenons and smooth surfaces to, for example, create a difference in texture between the continents and the oceans. The assembly does not even save the furniture, we get a bit bored with a systematic repetition of the same sub-assemblies.

I don't find either the aesthetics of a really old globe or that of the colored object that I knew during my childhood with its integrated bulb and in front of which I was bored in my spare time discovering countries or capitals. This globe is a mix between two eras and two objects which ultimately had only their round shape in common with a decorative side for one and a more educational ambition for the other.

As you will have understood, I am personally not convinced by this globe which I find a little coarse and falsely vintage. We know that LEGO sometimes has trouble producing curves with square pieces, this product which frankly lacks finish in my eyes is a new brilliant demonstration of this and it's a bit of a shame. The initial version of the project had already roughed the file, yet all that was missing was an effort on the finish to convince me.

Other "imitation" products from the LEGO lifestyle universe, such as the typewriter in the set 21327 Typewriter, the piano of the set 21323 Grand Piano or the guitar of the set 21329 Fender Stratocaster all benefit from a finish that allows them to deserve to be proudly displayed. In my opinion, this is not the case with this globe. As it is, it seems that the designer in charge of the project did not want to spend too much time on it and that LEGO thought that the technique used for the surface of the globe was sufficiently accomplished to deserve ending up on the shelves. some stores.

Either Guillaume Roussel aka Disneybrick55 had indeed found the best possible solution to produce a globe based on LEGO bricks and the official designer could not do better, either LEGO wanted to get rid of the file quickly and settled for the bare minimum. We know since his participation in the first season of the LEGO Masters show that Guillaume Roussel is a talented creator, my first guess may be the right one. Whatever the explanation, it will be without me, especially at 200 €, a price range in which we find products with a more accomplished aesthetic and a much more entertaining assembly experience.

Tastes and colors are indisputable and this product which gathered the 10.000 supporters necessary for its passage in the review phase and then was definitively validated by LEGO will obviously find its audience. Complete collectors of the very heterogeneous LEGO Ideas range will find it difficult to ignore this new reference and there will inevitably be a few lovers of decorative products to find a place of choice for this globe in their interior. You have my opinion, it's up to you to make yours.

Note: The set presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 27th January 2022 next at 23pm.

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

The two LEGO Super Mario promotional key chains probably weren't worth talking about in more detail, but since I've received several questions about them, I'm answering everyone at the same time.

It will be remembered that these two key chains can be obtained via two different channels: that of Luigi via the VIP rewards center by redeeming 500 VIP points and then using the code obtained when ordering on the official online store, that of Mario using 400 Platinum points on the Nintendo Store and by paying the shipping costs for this "free" article, ie 6.99 €.

You might as well tell you right away, if you plan to collect all the variants of these key rings, you may miss two of them on arrival: in addition to these two standard versions, two golden key rings are displayed. game by LEGO and Nintendo on their respective platforms and you have to buy participation tickets with your VIP points (50 per ticket / 50 tickets max.) or Platinum (10 per ticket / 3 tickets max.) to hope to be part of the winners.

The two slightly more accessible key rings presented here are not exceptional objects, they are subcontracted to Chinese company RDP like all the other key rings already offered via the VIP program and their finish is far from exemplary. They are simply packaged in paper bags and the manufacturer has contented itself with integrating slightly pixelated photos of the two characters in real size on the metal support which tends to rust on the edges as soon as they are unpacked.

The rendering is far from being the level of a real collector's product with some printing defects more or less visible, spots, more or less dull areas, etc ... It is mass production of low-end promotional items, in my opinion, LEGO does not come out of the distribution of such products.

Too bad also for the screen on the belly of the two characters which is replaced by a simple neutral rectangle whose color does not even match the rest, there was probably a way to furnish with an illustration based on the many reactions displayed on real interactive figurines.

In short, these two derivative products probably do not deserve that we spend too much energy and money to get them, paying 6.99 € to receive Mario's from Nintendo is also a bit annoying. , even if I know that the transport is not free and that we must pay those who deliver our packages.

Note: The two products presented here are in play (the interactive Mario figure is not provided, do not abuse). Deadline set at September 20, 2021 next at 23pm. 

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 set LEGO 910032 Parisian Street, a creation by Nicolas Carlier who is currently a finalist of the Bricklink Designer Program Series 1. With its 3532 pieces, its 7 minifigs, its 18 stickers and its price set at €289.99, this model deserves in my opinion that we linger on it for the time of a review to check if the proposal is up to the level of the amount and patience needed to obtain it.

For those who don't know Nicolas Carlier (CARLIERTI), this is the one who submitted several times in the company of his brother Thomas (BRICK PROJECT) the now famous and failed Ratatouille project on the LEGO Ideas platform. Exiting through one door to enter through another, Nicolas Carlier submitted a unique creation as part of the Bricklink Designer Program and this Parisian street today has the honors of the program with its pre-order.

LEGO sent me a very preliminary copy without box or instruction booklet, with an inventory sorted in ordinary bags, unfinalized instructions in digital format and a sheet of temporary stickers. I was therefore able to assemble this 51 cm long by 12.5 cm deep model in the company of Chloé, who those who follow us on social networks already know.

The instructions were already at a sufficiently advanced stage to limit errors and other sequence reversals, although there was still work to be done and we had to use a little deduction for certain steps. There were also a few parts missing from the hand-sorted bags provided to us, but nothing serious.

The 18 stickers included in the temporary version are not printed on the usual paper but they do the job well once in place. They adorn the signs of the various businesses, the street signs and the painter's painting with the Eiffel Tower on the floors. It's graphically nicely executed, nothing to complain about.

Assembling the model is very pleasant, we start as if for a Structure through the base plates with their sidewalks and we gradually climb the floors, alternating the sequences of construction of walls, furniture and various and varied accessories. I am not giving you a detailed list of what you will find throughout the different sequences, the photos which illustrate this article speak for themselves.

It is important to note that LEGO did not intervene in the construction itself and that the product remains that imagined by its designer except for a few parts replaced for questions of logistics and availability.

I did not notice any particularly hazardous or risky techniques, the Carlier brothers are not novices and they know their ranges. They are therefore capable of offering an experience very similar to that which would be offered by an "official" product of the brand passed into the hands of experienced designers and this is excellent news for all those who might have been worried on this specific point .

Regarding the choice to offer a "doll's house" with facades on one side and furnished and fitted out alcoves on the other, Nicolas confirms that this is a deliberate choice. There was never any question of aping the principle of Modulars usually closed on all sides and the product was deliberately designed from the start as it will be delivered to the lucky purchasers.

Possible playability was one of the important criteria for its designer who therefore allowed himself to reserve one side for playful possibilities. The whole could therefore end its career by serving as a background layout in a diorama based on Modulars classics, the finish offered here being largely up to the standards offered at LEGO.

We also get here a real street, with several aligned buildings, the presence of a narrow alley with a staircase as well as a passage under one of the buildings. I find it all very successful with a nice mix of different architectures actually visible in the streets of Paris and the feeling of being in a real neighborhood, a point on which the set 10243 Parisian Restaurant left me hungry.

The colors used here are well chosen, the walls have character, the roofs are legible thanks to the contrast between beige and blue and the storefronts know how to stand out with their signs and their equipment which are also quite contrasting.

Nicolas Carlier was not stingy with the various internal arrangements, the furniture is very well designed and of the usual LEGO production level, the accessories are numerous and each space is therefore logically easily identifiable. The regulars of Modulars will be here on familiar ground with furniture of very good quality and a fairly successful use of the different spaces available, some of which are really very cramped.

All the alcoves are framed by an arch which guarantees exemplary solidity of the entire model, without the risk of the intermediate plates bending under the weight of the construction. For those wondering, the different floors and roofs are not designed to be separated from the model, with access to the interior spaces being defined on the rear side of the street.

The construction is accompanied by a large handful of figurines which brings a little animation to this shopping street, the different characters are well chosen and their accessories are matched. It's always a good idea for lovers of dense dioramas to find what they're looking for.

You will have understood, I find this product sufficiently accomplished to deserve our interest. It remains to accept the idea of ​​spending €290 on a set which is ultimately not an "official" product in the usual sense of the term.

We can obviously consider that the Bricklink Designer Program is a direct extension of the LEGO inventory, the platform having been bought by the Danish manufacturer, but I know that some fans remain resistant to these products and it is up to everyone to evaluate the relevance of the price in relation to the positioning of the sets concerned.

If you like the aesthetic and artistic touch of the Carlier siblings, don't hesitate to take a look at their site Brick Valley, you will find the instructions for other proposals of the same barrel as well as those for a series of mini Modulars which I find very successful. The two brothers also released two books on the theme of minis Modulars, you will find them on sale at Amazon:

LEGO Mini Modulars: Around The World

24.25 €

BUY

LEGO CITY - Mini Modulars book (Volume 2)

26.36 €

BUY

Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 16th February 2024 next at 23:59 p.m. Simply post a comment below the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion. Avoid “I’m participating” or “I’m trying my luck”, we suspect that this is the case.
Please note, I can only provide the complete inventory without instructions for the moment, you will have to wait for LEGO to officially make the relevant file available.

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

Today we take a very quick look at the contents of the LEGO Sonic the Hedgehog set. 76995 Shadow's Escape, a small box of 196 pieces which will be available from January 1, 2024 at the public price of €20.99.

And the guided tour will indeed be very quick as this little box is almost content to be a simple extension of the more global concept developed in the already very extensive Sonic the Hedgehog range : there is in fact not much to build and only one minifigure is provided.

We will note in passing that the inventory of this box is delivered in two “paper” bags, LEGO having recently recalled that the shift announced for a long time will eventually materialize in 2024 in Europe. I mention the word paper in quotation marks, the material being abundantly coated with plastic inside to prevent the pieces from tearing the packaging and we still find in these bags the usual small plastic packaging containing the smallest elements of the inventory.

LEGO promises an “infinity of stories” to invent with the contents of this product, however you will need to have a little imagination to get something out of it. Shadow can be imprisoned in the "cryogenic tank", he can escape, he can confront the Badnik Rhinobot in passing and then escape on his motorcycle. Why not, do it once before posting the thing in a corner to amortize the investment.

The motorcycle is very decent considering its limited inventory, Shadow can be installed in a seated position on the seat, this is not always the case with LEGO motorcycles, and can even really take hold of the roller-based handlebars paint. The machine is not unworthy, it is neat knowing that there are no stickers in this box and that the motorcycle therefore benefits from pad-printed elements.

The other construction of the set brings some functionality to the product with the possibility of ejecting the glass from the tank by pressing on the two-tone edge of the base so that Shadow sets sail. The barrier placed behind the tank is synchronized with the ejection mechanism of the canopy, Shadow can then smash it with his motorcycle. the bottom of the tank is furnished with a very successful pad-printed piece (see photo below).

The Rhinobot is correct even if it struggles a little to embody the creature with its shell and its central wheel seen on the screen in video games where the villain makes an appearance, it is missing at least one yellow band which crosses the shell of the evil robot. the Clucky provided is symbolic, the idea is there and the little figurine will do the trick even if the hen's crest would in my opinion have deserved a plastic excrescence instead of being satisfied with a simple printed pattern.

We cannot therefore say that the product is crazy playable and exceptionally creative and for €21 LEGO is clearly content with the bare minimum to encourage us to buy the new Shadow figurine delivered in this box.

The latter is rather well executed even if the white pad-printed area on the black background of the torso is too dull compared to the more "intense" white of the legs, which is a shame. The legs and arms benefit from particular care and these nicely pad-printed elements are successful.

For the head of the figurine, some will perhaps only see an interpretation that strays too far from the initial concept of the LEGO minifig, others will find that the mold is frankly successful, everyone has their own appreciation of the liberties taken by LEGO in this range to offer credible characters resembling their digital alter egos.

In short, this little additional pack which could possibly flesh out a diorama made up of a few boxes from the Sonic the Hedgehog range doesn't have much to offer but it only costs €21 and we all know here that the motivation will come from the presence of a new figurine that many fans of this universe were waiting for in a LEGO version.

That's already good, we learn not to be too demanding over time and to be satisfied with what we are offered if the price seems acceptable to us. In my opinion, this is the case here, the motorcycle saving the furniture in the process concerning the constructions provided.

Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at December 10, 2023 next at 23:59 p.m. Simply post a comment below the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion. Avoid “I’m participating” or “I’m trying my luck”, we suspect that this is the case.

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 ICONS set 10318 Concorde, a box of 2083 pieces which will be available on the official online store, as an Insiders preview, at the retail price of €199.99 from September 4th.

This product had received a rather favorable reception during its official announcement a few weeks ago, but the latter was then supported by a series of official visuals highlighting the product and it is therefore time to check if the promise is kept. Spoiler : this is not completely the case, you will understand why below.

You have probably already noticed that this Concorde with LEGO sauce is neither in the colors of Air France nor in the British Airways version. It's a bit of a shame, the Aérospatiale France / British Aircraft Corporation livery of the model 002 provided here being a bit too dated.

We can imagine that LEGO and Airbus did not wish to offer a livery in the colors of Air France which would inevitably have recalled the crash of July 25, 2000 and we will therefore do with this vintage version, the main thing being that the LEGO model is relatively faithful to the reference aircraft.

This is the case except for a few details, in particular at the level of the nose which is here in my opinion a little too round and voluminous like an ice cream cone. For the rest, the exercise seems to me generally rather successful for a model of barely more than 2000 parts and 102 cm long by 43 cm wide intended for the exhibition.

The assembly process cleverly alternates between building the internal mechanism that will later deploy the landing gear and stacking white bricks to form the wings and cabin of the aircraft. We don't get bored, the sequences are well distributed and we start with the central section of the plane and then finish with the extremities by installing the engine blocks in passing.

The mechanism for pulling out the gears circulates inside the cabin, it ends up in the tail of the plane which therefore serves as a wheel for a little fun. LEGO insists on the possibility of testing the proper functioning of each section of the mechanism during the assembly phase of the set, it is wise and it avoids having to disassemble everything if an axis has been incorrectly inserted or positioned. Only the central and front axles are concerned by this mechanism, the tail wheel must be deployed manually. One could also have imagined a synchronization of the movement of the landing gear with that of the nose of the aircraft, this is not the case and the latter must be handled separately.

A fun little detail, LEGO has also provided some "accessories" used only during assembly to hold a section in place or allow you to work vertically. All the parts used for these temporary supports are orange in color, you will not be able to miss them or confuse them with elements permanently installed on the model. Over the pages, we install or remove these sections, the process is quite unusual but very practical. On arrival these temporary supports remain unused, you can do with them what you want.

You have already seen it on the official visuals, it is possible to remove a short section of the fuselage to admire a few rows of seats. the functionality is anecdotal but it has the merit of existing and it will impress your friends. The assembly is perfectly rigid, the wings do not bend under their own weight or that of the engines and the model can be removed from its base and easily handled. Watch out for the two little ones Tiles quarter-circle placed on and under the fuselage, they only hold stuck between two tenons and they come off easily.

Don't spoil yourself too much about the different construction stages if you have planned to buy this product, all the fun is once again in the few hours of assembly with some good ideas and an assembly process that is paced enough not to overdo it. focus on the few slightly repetitive phases. The pages of the instruction booklet are embellished with some information on the aircraft, you will not come out much more learned on the subject but it is entertaining.

The real problem of the product is elsewhere and it is not new or reserved for this product: the white parts are unfortunately not all the same white. From certain angles and with the right lighting, I count up to three different shades on the fenders and it's ugly. The official visuals have obviously been extensively retouched to erase this aesthetic defect, in real life the real model will lose some of its luster when it comes to displaying it on the dresser in the living room. It even seems that some parts have slightly yellowed before time, it will be up to everyone to assess their level of tolerance regarding this technical defect but I would have at least warned you.

For my part, I still cannot understand how a manufacturer who has been in this business for 90 years does not know how to properly tint his parts so that they are almost all the same color. This product is no exception, regulars of the Sand green or Dark Red know that it is already complicated with these specific colors but we are talking about white here. Creamy white, off-white but white. The effect is all the more visible on the wings as it is reinforced by the separation between the different parts, with a line that circulates between the different colors and which delimits each of the elements concerned.

The cockpit, whose nose can be more or less inclined like on the real Concorde, benefits from two nicely executed canopies with pad printing (a little too white) on the main glazing and a protective glass installed on the mobile part of the nose which is supplied directly injected in two textures. The latter is delivered in a dedicated paper packaging, the other is simply thrown into one of the bags of the set with the risks that we know.

We will also note some alignment problems at the level of the red line which crosses the cabin horizontally, it is alternately embodied by red parts or by pad printing on white parts which is not perfectly positioned on the elements concerned to guarantee a perfect connection. This detail will probably not be a problem for hardcore fans of the plane or LEGO, but we are still talking here about a white model at 200 €, attention to detail should have been in order.

For those who are wondering: the pad-printed windows are consistent with the reference aircraft, the Concorde was well equipped with smaller windows than conventional airliners.

The small base provided, which takes up the aesthetics of the base of certain classic models of the plane, does its job: it makes it possible to present the device with a slightly dynamic staging and the stability of the whole is at all test thanks to the perfectly balanced positioning of the support. It's up to you whether you want to display the Concorde in the flight phase with the landing gear retracted and the nose straight or in the take-off phase with the landing gear extended and the nose tilted. The small vintage-looking plate placed on the front of the display is pad-printed, there are no stickers in this box. This plate distills some facts about the plane, it's vintage and it's fitting with the proposed livery which is far from being the most recent.

Like many of us, I was pretty excited about this product so far following its official announcement. I once again let myself be convinced by the pretty official visuals which promised a model with a finished aesthetic, it's not the impression I have having this Concorde in my hands. The designer has done his homework and the returned copy is in my opinion frankly very honest, but the main technical defect of the product comes in my opinion a little to spoil the party. Many will however be satisfied with this Concorde which, observed from a certain distance, will do the trick, installed for example next to the Titanic.

Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at September 13, 2023 next at 23:59 p.m. Simply post a comment below the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion. Avoid “I’m participating” or “I’m trying my luck”, we suspect that this is the case.

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