The Artful Brick

TL;DR: Original Price:   $34.99 Pieces: 390 Minifigure(s): Monkey King Racing Suit (mechanic), Monkie Kid Racing Suit Sticker Sheet: Yes Pros: Creatively flexible build(s), mechanic Monkey King Cons: A few color issues   Assembly:  Bag #1 - Monkey King, Speedboat Bag #2 - Monkie Kid, Race car Bag #3 - Rocket ship   Leftover Pieces Interesting Steps: Step 24 of Book 3 uses a 1x3 jumper plate to add a slight tapering effect to the dark turquoise detail of the nose piece: Step 69 of Book 3 shows how they make use of double click-hinges on the rocket ship to give the engine pods a more sporty (and flexible) position. A subtle detail that could have been done with Technic rods and angled connectors, but in keeping with the spirit of this set, they opted for the solution that added play functionality: Interesting Techniques:    Throughout the builds, the various elements are held together with a simple but effective combination: a "Round 1 x 2 with Hollow...

    TL;DR: Original Price:   $4.99 Pieces: 9 Minifigure(s): Bogeyman Sticker Sheet: No Pros: Unusual mold, useful book & body printing Cons: Head doesn't move Assembly:    This guy is one of my favorites of the Series 27 Collectible Minifigures. I'm always in favor of making scary things cute (and thereby robbing them of their scare factor) and this bogeyman is a great example of that. Even his book takes the bump-in-the-night vibe and makes it silly, more playful than dire. The body has some excellent printing (alas, just on the front) that could be useful for gorilla or other beastly costumes, and the head has almost a tiki-mask shape. The only problem I have with it is that the sheer size of the head means that it obscures a lot of the chest print and also can't turn at all. Still, that's a minor complaint given the excellence of the figure.   It's also worth mentioning the excellent Minifig Scan app ( Android & Apple ) to see what's inside ...

TL;DR: Original Price:   2250 Insiders points / $19.99 Pieces: 214 Minifigure(s): Blue Classic Space Baby ("Baby Benny") Sticker Sheet: Yes Pros: Creative size use Cons: Limited play Assembly:  Bag #1 - Baby Benny, monorail cars Bag #2 - Track Bag #3 - Base of station Bag #4 - Top of station Interesting Techniques: The use of tiles as tracks and 1x1 round plates as runners is an interesting way to make a "monorail" type track. It's creative, but doesn't run as nice as I'd like (trying with just one plate instead of two underneath works for sliding, but the cars pivot way too much even on straightaways). I wonder if you could invert it, with the middle raised above the sides, and the 1x1 round plates as runners on the outside of the track.   Interesting Pieces:   2x4x5 inclined stanchion is a great vintage sci-fi flavored piece, especially in the classic blue.   Pain Points: As mentioned above, the wobble of the cars as they drive around is less...

TL;DR: Original Price:   $9.99 Pieces: 56 Minifigure(s): Sora, Dragonian Warrior, Dragon "critter" Sticker Sheet: No Pros: Great minifig and interesting new pieces Cons: Price, piece count     Assembly:    Leftover Pieces Interesting Pieces: Dragon Spinjitsu parts (spinner and launcher) are interesting new builds; it's fascinating how many different ways Lego has devised of getting minifigures to spin (Spinjitsu with the rip cord, Spinjitsu Slam, Dragon Power sphere holders) and this is a particularly elegant little solution—an 8L axle pushes the spinner along the track, its teeth catching on the track's and setting it spinning, with a smooth depression in the bottom allowing the spinner to rotate freely as it's launched. The problem with these is that I haven't yet found any use for them beyond their original purpose. Dragon Spinjitsu effect looks better in print than IRL (the translucency renders the details of the face hard to read); it also looks good...