TL;DR:
- Original Price: $9.99
- Pieces: 121
- Minifigure(s): Mateo (space uniform), Z-Blob (flower bell-shaped)
- Sticker Sheet: No
- Pros: Interesting part assortment and creative multiple builds, tons of play value
- Cons: only the first 10 builds (see below) are in the book, the remaining 10 are online-only; it would also have been good if the 2x2 round tile were transparent bright green instead of regular bright green, since it's the only piece in that color in the build and that way it would fit better with the Z-Blob piece
Assembly - Printed Instructions:
Build #1 - Mateo, Main Z-Blob Robot, pages 10-36
Leftover Pieces (including enough to build a second, smaller pencil-sword)
Build #2 - Helicopter, pages 42-45
Build #3 - Scorpion, pages 46-49
Build #4 - Sprint car, pages 50-53
Build #5 - Jet fighter, pages 54-59
Build #6 - Sword mech, pages 60-65
Build #7 - Prop plane, pages 66-67
Build #8 - Race car, pages 68-71
Build #9 - Submarine, pages 72-75
Build #10 - Hover drone, pages 76-79
Assembly - Online Instructions:
Build #11 - Crab, pages 2-7
Build #12 - Propeller drone, pages 8-17
Build #13 - Chinook helicopter, pages 18-23
Build #14 - Spaceship, pages 24-27
Build #15 - Go kart, pages 28-31
Build #16 - Walker bot, pages 32-39
Build #17 - Brontosaurus, pages 40-47
Build #18 - Car-with-gun, pages 48-55
Build #19 - Wing-ship, pages 56-61
Build #20 - Airplane, pages 62-67
- Interesting Steps: I appreciate that each separate build is delineated by different colored backgrounds, making it easier to find them by flipping (or scrolling) through the booklets.
- Interesting Pieces:
- The Z-Blob head, unlike the bulb style in other sets (like
-
- Pain Points: I've never been a fan of online instructions. To be honest, the only reason I built the 10 models online is for the purpose of this review, and I'm glad I did because there were some very fun ones...but I'd still prefer having printed instructions in front of me.
- My Modifications:
- To make each build more efficient, I used a Dollar Tree project tray to keep the different categories organized: plates, SNOT, tiles & curves, and everything else
- On the scorpion (build 2), the official instructions result in the tile shooter "stinger" ending up upside-down. This, imho, doesn't look quite right; thankfully the ball joints mean it can be rotated so it's upright and looks more stingery (not to mention making it easier to fire). The photo above has it in this position
- On the drone (build 10), it looked so much like a little chameleon (the googley eye formed by the green 1x1 round plate and the 1x1 white cheese wedge slopes as head crests) that I decided to add a little tail. The photo above has this addition.
- On the crab (build 11) I swapped out the two 1x1 round plates in the front for the 1x1 plates with clips, as shown in the photo above.
- On the brontosaurus (build 17) I swapped the head around (having the 2x2x2/3 slope pointing the opposite direction and placing the cheese wedges on the back) to make the head look more headlike, with the half-studs exposed by the wedge slope looking like nostrils. The photo above shows this.
- In the spirit of imaginative play, I doodled up this "Z-Blob city attack" build in a few minutes after having gone through the 20 official builds:
The initial robot is very cute and uses plenty of Mixel-style ball joints for extra poseability. Also the inclusion of transparent bright green plates makes it seem as though there's Z-Blob slime throughout the entire build. As for the other models...
Helicopter: cute and smol
Scorpion: creative use of the tile shooter in place of the stinger and very poseable
Sprint car: very zippy, but the spoiler is clumsy
Jet fighter: the use of the tires to mimic jet turbines is a creative solution, and the hinges allow for alteration of the wings' attack angle
Sword mech: unusual proportions, but the backwards-jointed legs make it squatter than it might otherwise be, especially in comparison to the long torso
Prop plane: very cute, but the underside of the fuselage could stand to be refined further
Race car: simple but effective, though the spoiler pops off easily and the extra ball joints on the sides are distracting
Submarine: one of my favorite builds in this set so far, very deep-sea-explorery, especially with its little claws
Hover drone: as described above, this one looked very much like a little flying chameleon, so I decided to push things a little further in that direction
Crab: Another cute build that I decided to tip more towards creatureness, in this case by giving it little claws.
Propeller drone: the hinges make it easy to angle the wings, so this little thing can zip around in any direction
Chinook helicopter: creative use of SNOT techniques to have the propellers facing in the right direction, and I like the use of the 1x2 round plates to give texture to the cargo area; it also does a good job of securing all parts, so the inverted slops holding the rear prop don't fall off like they do on the Race car's spoiler
Spaceship: sleek, classic lines. Benny would be proud!
Go kart: another zippy little build, compact and a good use of parts
Walker bot: an adorable chicken walker reminiscent of the robots from *Batteries Not Included (or "Burgie" for those of you who grew up watching Muppet Babies), one of my favorite builds of this set, and very easily posable
Brontosaurus: super cute and with lots of character (see note above)
Car-with-gun: actually the only non-primary build that includes the tile-shooter, apart from the Scorpion; it's also the only build where the Z-Blob isn't on the 2z2 round jumper plate, which results in the gun being able to swivel around in any direction. It's also got a good use of the transparent green plates, to make it look like Z-Blob's slime has surrounded the gun to aim and fire it.
Wing-ship: a nice futuristic fighter, with four wing/vanes that can be posed; the tow ball sockets holding the front vanes pop off easily, however
Airplane: straightforward and cute, and does a very good job of locking the parts together
So, the grand total of build types are:
- Robots: 3
- Space vehicles: 2
- Aerial vehicles: 7
- Land vehicles: 4
- Water vehicles: 1
- Creatures: 3
In general, this was a great little set, with way more play value than I expected. Honestly, it ranks with some of my favorite sets (Build Your Own Hogwarts Castle" and 30497 "First Order Heavy Assault Walker") in terms of a great self-contained set with a ton of possible builds. I've taken both of those other sets on trips, or just had them in a little box on my desk to noodle around with; 30435 is great for building little castles, obviously, but 30497 particularly surprised me by being an amazing set for microbuilt cities, so much so that it forms the basis of my "desert island" criteria for an ideal set to encourage play. I think I'll be trying to get another 71487, not just so I have an extra Z-Blob to play with but also so I can have these useful parts in my general collection and have a set to noodle around with on its own.
To that end, I also did the little "Z-Blob city attack" model, pictured above. The real advantage of a small set like this (or 30435 and 30497) is that after several builds you really get a handle on how different parts can be used differently, and how you can mix-and-match techniques to get different results. It's like painting with only two or three colors: at first it feels like a drastic limitation, but then the constraints really become an asset, forcing you to focus on what you have and be way more creative than if you'd had a spectrum's worth of colors (or a Legoland's worth of pieces).
Score (out of 5 🧱):
- Price: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
- Process: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
- Presentation: 🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱
- Play: 🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱
- Pieces: 🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱
- Total: 🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱
Lego Instructions: here
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