Today we must quickly turn to the LEGO Ninjago set 71716 Lloyd Avatar Arcade Pod (48 pieces - 9.99 €), a new attempt on the part of LEGO to offer us boxes in which it is possible to store and transport the contents of the set concerned.

Here, the container takes the form of an arcade machine composed of a very large molded part on which are grafted a cover, a base, a glass, several stickers and some decorative elements. The series of three sets taking up this idea and integrating in turn Lloyd (71716), Jay (71715) and Kai (71714) is inspired by the world of video games Empire premium declined in short videos uploaded by LEGO to bring the 12th season of the animated series.

No mystery here, the 48 pieces of the set are quickly assembled and it is the installation of stickers that will take the most time. The arcade cabinet is pretty well designed, except that you have to remove the base completely to really interact with the two minifigs placed inside. The locking latch is supported by two pins and the assembly does not open unexpectedly during transport and the terminal door serves as a storage space for various accessories. The head of Lloyd's avatar is also plugged in and the body of the character takes place just in front of the minifig of Digi lloyd. It is then necessary to break down the minifig to align the torso and legs in front of the display.

The object obtained in this box is rather successful, we immediately recognize the arcade machine and the model will find its place at the bottom of the backpack of a young schoolboy fan of the Ninjago universe. The decorations placed at the top of the construction will undoubtedly come off during movement and it will then be necessary to go in search of the different parts at the bottom of the bag to reconstitute the thing but it is generally very transportable.

Unfortunately, if the idea is good, the realization leaves aside an important constraint which harms the coherence of the content a little: A minifigure cannot reach the buttons of the game console which is much too high. We can therefore conclude that the terminal is really only a storage box and that it has a little trouble convincing of its possible double use. We are not going to lie to each other anyway, with this molded box, LEGO tries above all to impose a new "collectable" product rather than a real toy with which we will have fun for long hours.

The arcade machine is dressed in four large stickers including two huge side stickers. LEGO is kind enough to provide us with eight small additional stickers to stick on the terminal or elsewhere according to your desire and your creative capacities.

This box also allows you to obtain two minifigs and only the Avatar version is exclusive. The Digi Lloyd minifig with its "life bar" on the back is the one already seen in the 71709 Jay and Lloyd's Velocity Racers, 71712 Empire Temple of Madness and 71713 Empire Dragon sets. The handle of Lloyd's saber shaped like a gamepad Pearl Gold is only available in the three Arcade Pods but it is found in white in several boxes marketed since the beginning of the year.

The Avatar version of the character is not uninteresting but its realization leaves much to be desired with colors that do not match anywhere. The green pad printed on the legs in Pearl Gold is too dark for that of the torso which is on a green base with a pad-printed insert which turns pale yellow instead of being matched with the head and the hands of the character. Again, the official visuals are way too pretentious and the reality is disappointing.

In summary, for 10 €, we get two minifigs, their accessories and a decorated box that allows them to be transported. After the ball-shaped capsules, square boxes from the Friends range or books from the Disney universe, LEGO offers a new variation of the toy to take everywhere thanks to a container made of a molded shell. Why not, even if in this specific case I would have appreciated getting an arcade machine to assemble and scale minifigs.

Note: The product shown here, supplied by LEGO, is as usual in play. Deadline fixed at March 20, 2020 next at 23pm.

Update : The winner was drawn and 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. Shipment of the batch as soon as the sanitary situation permits.

The teaser of the day: the short video below which confirms that LEGO and Nintendo are united around the universe of Super Mario.

Difficult to draw real conclusions based on the teaser of a few seconds posted on social networks, we will have to wait for a more consistent announcement to find out more and get a clear idea of ​​what LEGO and Nintendo have prepared for us.

Note that the timing of the announcement is not trivial, today we are March 10, "Mario Day", the annual celebration of the franchise (Mar10 = Mario).

Update : There is only one product that is really confirmed at the moment, and not a half dozen, this is the benchmark 71360 with its 231 pieces and its public price of 59.99 € which is present at Amazon UK.

The last trailer for the film Black Widow is available and we will now have to wait until April 29 to discover the film in theaters and, incidentally, to check whether the only derivative product currently marketed by LEGO, the reference 76162 Black Widow's Helicopter Chase (271 pieces - € 29.99), is an acceptable representation. Without getting too wet and given the different clues available (a helicopter, snow ...) we can already imagine that the set tries to reproduce the scene seen in the different trailers.

I will obviously soon offer you a "Review "from this box that allows us to obtain a helicopter, a motorcycle, a quad and three minifigs: Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff), Yelena Belova and Taskmaster.

LEGO having a sense of timing, I immediately received a copy of the LEGO DOTS polybag 30556 DOTS Mini Frame currently offered on the official online store from 30 € / 35 CHF of purchase.

There is nothing to philosophize about for a long time on this bag of 85 pieces, it allows you to assemble a mini photo frame to decorate according to your desires and your mood of the moment.

I have put the proposed decoration for you by default, probably because I am used to following the instructions to the letter and want that "it looks like what lego planned", but you can get a little more creative with the few extra items provided.

The primary function of this construction is to serve as a photo frame that will sit on the corner of a piece of furniture, so I inserted the photo of someone important to me. The visual is also almost too far behind in the thick frame that stifles the staging a little.

In short, it's a gift from 30 € / 35 CHF purchase on the official online store and it gives you a first idea of ​​what the LEGO DOTS concept offers with its small pieces to align without getting nervous to get pretty decorative patterns.

Just putting this pattern together I really struggled to keep my cool trying to position the pieces that make up the pattern correctly, so as far as I'm concerned I will do the dead end. on the rest of the range which offers a jewelry merry-go-round, pencil holders, photo frames and customizable bracelets.

Note: The product shown here, supplied by LEGO, is as usual in play. Deadline fixed at March 18, 2020 next at 23pm.

Update : The winner was drawn and 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. Shipment of the batch as soon as the sanitary situation permits.

We continue the tour of the LEGO Marvel novelties of the first half of 2020 with the Spider-Man set 76150 Spiderjet vs. Venom Mech (371 pieces), a small box sold at the public price of 39.99 € which will offer the youngest something to have fun but which will leave many collectors unsatisfied.

The biggest part of the set is a Spider-Man-themed airplane, the aptly named Spiderjet. In terms of form, we get a jet with an original design, well equipped with various and varied missiles and with a cockpit spacious enough to accommodate a minifig.

For the rest, LEGO could easily have placed this construction in category 4+ because the plane is dressed in very large parts and the assembly of the thing only takes a few minutes. The designer has not made any particular effort on the two missile launchers, the mechanism works perfectly but it is really very roughly integrated with the added bonus of two blue side doors that can be opened but which do not overlook anything.

Venom's mech is based on the same principle as those of sets 76140 Iron Man Mech (148 pieces - 9.99 €), 76141 Thanos Mech (152 pieces - 9.99 €) and 76146 Spider-Man Mech (152 pieces - 9.99 €) with many points of articulation which allow very varied poses. The black piece which serves as the torso, here dressed with a pad-printed Nexo Knights shield, is not unpublished in this color, it was already used to form the walls of the wagon in the set 76099 Rhino Face-Off by the Mine inspired by the movie Black Panther and released in 2018.

Here we find the defect already present on the hands of the Iron Man mech in the set 76140 Iron Man Mech with one of the two extensions of the part used to fix the three fingers which remains far too visible. Here too, however, it was sufficient to use the Plate 1 x 2 with a single equivalent extension to avoid this somewhat unsightly outgrowth, or to add a finger.

We do not escape the traditional sheet of stickers in this box with six stickers for the Spiderjet cabin and the seventh for the safe security system that the Venom mech can take with a chain terminated by an anchor .

As for the minifigs, it will be necessary to accept the duplicates to obtain the only new character of the set: the Spider-Man minifig with its legs injected in two colors is indeed far from unpublished, it is the one seen in a half. dozen of boxes since 2019. That of Venom is also recycled, it was delivered in 2019 in the set 76115 Spider Mech vs. Venom.

We therefore have the Spider-Man Noir minifigure left, a version of the character who evolves in an alternate universe and who also makes an appearance in the animated feature film. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse released in 2018.

Looking more closely, we see that only the torso and the head of this minifigure are unpublished. The legs are regularly used by LEGO, they are those of Cédric Diggory, Cornelius Fudge, Happy Hogan, Severus Snape or General Hux. The alignment of the pad printing between the torso and the legs is also very rough and it's a shame for a new character that we will probably never see again in a LEGO set. The black hat is making a comeback in this box after being worn by various musicians, bandits and other gangsters between 2009 and 2013.

This small set with partially sloppy content sold for 39.99 € is in fact becoming a must because it allows you to obtain a truly new character. The Venom mech could just as easily have been sold separately at the retail price of € 9.99 like the other three already marketed this year and the Spiderjet just deserved to finish in a box marked 4+. We would then have at least had the right to pad printed parts instead of stickers.

In short, if you have a young Spider-fan at home, he will probably have fun with this box which offers enough to stage a confrontation. If you only collect minifigs and already have Spider-Man and Venom, turn to the aftermarket to get Spider-Man Noir.

Note: The set presented here, supplied by LEGO, is as usual in play. Deadline fixed at March 19, 2020 next at 23pm.

Update : The winner was drawn and 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. Shipment of the batch as soon as the sanitary situation permits.