It is in the pages of an official Canadian catalog currently circulating on social networks that we discover the first visual of the LEGO set 71741 Ninjago City Gardens, the big box of 5685 pieces and 19 minifigs which will complete the two portions of the megalopolis already on the market: the sets 70620 Ninjago City  (2017) et 70657 Ninjago City Docks (2018)

The catalog confirms a sale from January 14, 2021 with a VIP preview which will precede global availability scheduled for February 1, 2021. Estimated public price in France: € 299.99.

We will talk about this box again very soon on the occasion of a "Review ". Clutch Powers is in the set, just that suits me.

(With brick set)

Today we quickly go around the other small box under 10 € in the LEGO Technic range of the first half of 2021: the reference 42117 Race Plane. Like the set 42116 Skid Steer Loader, this small unpretentious box of 154 pieces is aimed at young fans who would like to gradually enter the LEGO Technic universe by discovering the potential of more or less complex elements and mechanisms that can be assembled.

This aircraft does a little worse than the skid steer loader on the side of the integrated functions, but it still allows you to learn some basic principles that will allow budding designers to move on to more sophisticated products.

It is therefore a question here of discovering how the wheels of the aircraft can cause the movement of the propeller, and the designer even thought of authorizing the observation of part of the mechanism via the two mobile elements of the cabin.

Some will immediately associate the machine with those who are competing in the very spectacular Red Bull Air Race and we could have imagined that LEGO would add two studs in the set to offer some fun aerobatic possibilities. A second box on the same subject with an airplane in different colors would also have added the possibility of having fun together and going beyond the construction of the airplane.

In short, even if adults accustomed to the LEGO Technic range are clearly not the target of this product with limited functionality, do not neglect this type of set when it comes to initiating a young fan more used to stacking bricks. than to associate gears with each other.

These small boxes are quickly assembled and a newcomer to the Technic universe will not have time to get bored or to feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the thing. The result obtained is visually very successful and it offers rewarding play possibilities for those who have just spent a few minutes trying to understand how the propeller sets in motion.

The contents of the set allow to assemble an alternative model, which I find visually a little less successful. This is always taken for the life of the product, we will not complain.

Note: The set presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 4th 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.

The Post 2020 calendar in Hoth Bricks version still has a few surprises in store for you and here's the second: A copy of the excellent LEGO DC Comics set 76161 1989 Bat Wing (199.99 €) is in play today.

A little information for those who have an Instagram account: I am currently putting a copy of the LEGO ART set into play. 31200 Star Wars The Sith (119.99 €). You can participate at this address until December 31st. Carry out all the actions indicated in the post, many participants are already automatically disqualified for not having carefully read the description of the competition ...

To validate your participation in this competition, all you have to do is identify yourself via the interface below and follow the instructions provided. As usual, it is a question of finding information on the official online store and then correctly answering the question asked. At the end of the participation phase, the winner will be chosen by drawing lots from among the correct answers.

Your contact details (name / nickname, email address, IP) are only used within the framework of this competition and will not be kept beyond the drawing of lots which will designate the winner. As usual, this no-obligation competition is open to all residents of mainland France, DOM & TOM, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

A big thank you to LEGO for allowing me to offer the series of pretty sets brought into play at the end of the year. The prize will be sent to the winner by me and by Colissimo, followed with insurance and signature on delivery (and suitable packaging) as soon as their contact details are confirmed by return email.

As always, I reserve the right to disqualify any participant who has attempted to defraud or hijack the entry system in order to increase their chances of winning. Hateful and bad losers to abstain, the others will have more chances to win.

Good luck to everyone !

Note: If you choose to identify yourself in the participation interface via facebook, be aware that in the event of a win, the personal information (name / first name / photo) linked to your account will be displayed in the widget.

Today we take a quick look at the other novelty LEGO on the theme of the Chinese New Year scheduled for January 10, 2021: the set 80106 Story of Nian with its 1067 parts, six minifigs, the Nian and its retail price of 74.99 €.

Since 2019, at the beginning of the year, LEGO has been marketing several boxes on the theme of the Chinese New Year with certain products inspired by Chinese culture and others focusing more on the various folkloric activities in vogue in Asia: in 2019, the sets 80102 Dragon Dance et 80103 Dragon Boat Race  reproduced very popular animations in China and in 2020 it was the lion dance, a lucky ritual very practiced in Asia, which paid homage to Chinese folklore with the set 80104 Lion Dance. This year is therefore the set 80106 Story of Nian which occupies this slot.

To put it simply, in Chinese folklore, the Nian is an imaginary creature that disembarks from the ocean floor on New Year's Eve to devour anything that moves. Suddenly, everyone takes refuge in the mountains to escape the monster, but as he still manages to make his way into the snowiest corners of the country, the villagers put red everywhere and bang on pots because the color and the noise frighten the monster. End of story, the monster runs away and everyone celebrates.

Since then, everyone has put red everywhere in homage to the color that defeated the Nian: doors, clothes, lanterns, etc ... and we throw fireworks or firecrackers in reference to the noise that frightened the creature . It is this legend that is at the origin of the Chinese New Year celebrations.

LEGO therefore offers us its interpretation of events with a snowy facade, a family of villagers and the Nian. We quickly understand that the wall with its doors only serves as a backdrop to stage the confrontation between the different characters and the wicked creature: it is really only a simple facade with a square on which can take place the figurines and the monster. It's basic, but nicely done and this exhibition product has good dimensions: 36 cm long, 17 cm deep and 25 cm high, including fireworks.

No mystery, a big part of the assembly phase involves stacking bricks to get the display. There are hardly more than two sachets out of the eight in the set which offer a slightly higher challenge with the construction of the Nian. The door of the house attacked by the Nian is successful but the rest of the construction leaves me on the whole hungry despite the few efforts on the snow and on the roofs.

The Nian is more interesting to assemble with its joints and decorations which make it a relatively mobile creature and well in the spirit of Chinese folklore. The designer had fun with some bananas for the contours of the eyes, ball joints remain light gray and dark gray and it is the lantern at the end of the tail that wins the sale.

The set does not escape the stickers, there are two to stick on the doors but the product does very well. Don't feel like you have to apply them if it's only to bitch in a few years when they come off.

As for the minifigs, we get three generations of "villagers" so that the discovery of this set and the legend it reproduces can be shared with the oldest who are probably those who know the history of Nian best.

Note that LEGO puts a lot of glasses on the nose of minifigs in this thematic box, rather logical when we know that China is the country of glasses with a population that has major sight problems: a Lancet study concluded that 80 to 90% of Asian students leave high school myopic.

For the rest, the pad prints are based on classic outfits, traditional costumes and neutral legs except for the type dressed as an ox, it is in the theme and if you buy a copy of the set 80107 Spring Lantern Festival, you will have a handful of civilians in addition to stage in the paths of the garden. LEGO saves some money by providing an identical torso for the adult and one of the children, the snowman is a bit neutral and he would have deserved a face and I especially remember the technique used by the designer to reproduce the fires of firework not fired and the Precious which serves as a door handle.

Those who collect the sets of this new "range", finally made available to all fans by LEGO after the exclusive launch in Asia of the first references, will in any case not hesitate long before acquiring the two sets planned this year. Those who carefully assess the value of the contents of a set before checking out should logically be a little less excited by this box than by the set.  80107 Spring Lantern Festival.

The theme is much less universal than that of the traditional park and even if the execution reserves some nice details here, the end result is not likely to unleash passions. Let's not forget that these products are mainly intended for the Asian market and that it was only under popular pressure that LEGO finally decided to make them accessible to the rest of the world.

Note: The set presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at December 30, 2020 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 quickly interested in the LEGO set 80107 Spring Lantern Festival, a box of 1793 pieces that will be marketed from January 10, 2021 at the public price of € 99.99.

The theme of the set: the traditional lantern festival that puts an end to the Chinese New Year celebrations. To put it simply, on the occasion of these festivities, the Chinese go to their city's parks at night to stroll and admire the rows of decorated lanterns installed there. The Chinese calendar being modeled on the lunar phases, so it makes sense that some of the traditional parks pay homage to the star and this is the case here with beautifully executed round doors that serve as entry points to this garden.

The theme of the Chinese New Year is therefore always present in this box, but we pour a little less into the usual clichés and we get something more cultural than folkloric as was already the case last year with the set. 80105 Chinese New Year Temple Fair. It is not to displease me, the integration of this garden in a more global context will be even easier.

As much to tell you right away, I really appreciated the assembly of this box and even if most of us will miss certain references supported to the Asian culture, the whole offers a real playful and rhythmic progression . You will understand, this park with its adapted sidewalks is designed to fit between two Modulars and the whole itself offers a certain modularity with a garden divided into two parts to be clipped between them in the direction that suits you, knowing that in one of the configurations the paved path which circulates in the garden loses its continuity.

The techniques offered are often very interesting and we take pleasure in discovering all the subtleties of the different sub-assemblies that dress the space. But some of the designer's choices induce a fairly significant fragility of several portions of the set: the roof of the pavilion, for example, poses a problem with blue clips on the Clutch Power very limited which do not really hold in place on the steering wheel which serves as the central axis. Also pay attention to bamboos when moving the model, they are relatively fragile. This garden is not a playset for children aged 8 and over, impossible to have fun with without destroying something in the process and it is simply a decorative object designed to integrate a more global diorama.

The representation of a traditional Chinese park is obviously here condensed to fit on the two base plates provided (32x32 and 16x32) and we find all the usual attributes a little piled on top of each other. The green spaces are only symbolized by a few plaques and we must rely on bamboo shoots leaning over Ball Seals gray too visible to add some vegetation to the scene.

The alleys of the park are not entirely paved with ingots, the visible tenons will allow to stage the seven minifigs provided. The small pond covered with water lilies consists of tiles transparent, some of which are pad printed with a few carp, the effect is successful. No stickers in this box and the calligraphic Chun Lian banners hanging along the fence are made of flexible plastic.

The endowment in minifigs is also very interesting because it allows to obtain a handful of modern characters in "civil" without traditional costumes or disguises. That's always taken for a city diorama in which this park will easily find its place, the set is designed for that and it is about selling it to today's fans anxious to find a product that embodies certain of the most ancestral traditions of Chinese culture but which also makes it possible to stage current families.

The pad prints are successful, the characters are relatively neutral and some of them are accompanied by original and funny accessories. A nod to the passage to the Monkie Kid universe, a pad printing of the sweater sleeves which covers a large part of the arms, a pretty sweatshirt with the 2021 logo in the "American" style identical to the two teenagers, two smartphones including one with a selfie stick, a decorated roller bunny, everything is really very successful until the use of the transparent support which was used to stage the minifigs of the DC Comics collectible character series and which here acts as a straw for the slushie.

A funny detail: the dark mark on the neck of the red statue that is visible through the transparent head is not present on the official visuals. This black area is used as a reference during the pad printing of the torsos and it has obviously been retouched so that the minifigure is visually more homogeneous. In fact, it is immediately less successful when the model is facing the front.

In short, this very nice set does not hide its desire to be stuck between two Modulars and fans will finally have at hand an "official" green space which will give a little air to their row of buildings. It will be possible to ignore the festive side of the matter and make this garden a little more neutral by temporarily removing the different rows of lanterns, even if it means putting them back in place at the end of the year (see photo above). The ox with its luminous brick which is only lit as long as you leave your finger on the button can possibly remain in place to furnish, it's up to you.

The level of detail of the places is very impressive and the compactness of the diorama reinforces the impression of getting value for the money when it comes to various and varied details. Everything is assembled in just a few hours, but you will have to take the time to savor all the often very original techniques used by designer Justin Ramsden.

In the end, we note that LEGO does not skimp on resources or creativity when it comes to dredging up Chinese customers overwhelmed with more or less equivalent products but sold much cheaper than official LEGO sets. This is good news, in turn, the other products of the manufacturers benefit directly from the ability of LEGO to offer new parts, new elements in certain colors (blue bananas ...) and quality pad printing.

This box will be available from January 10, 2021 on the official online store at the public price of € 99.99. However, this set will not be on sale at your usual toy store.

Note: The set presented here, supplied by LEGO, is as usual in play. Deadline fixed at December 29, 2020 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.