43113 K-Pawp Concert LEGO Review - VIDIYO, 2021

Looks cool, but lacks the pizazz the app would have provided.

TL;DR:

• Original Price:  $49.99
• Pieces: 514
• Minifigure(s): Flying Unicorn Singer, Bunny Guitarist, Kitty Keytarist
• Sticker Sheet: No
  
• Pros: Cute minifigs & colorful set design
• Cons: Defunct VIDIYO app

Assembly: 

Bag #1 - Flying Unicorn Singer, Bunny Guitarist, VIDIYO base, dance game backstage area

Bag #2 - Kitty Keytarist, left side of stage

Bag #3 - Right side of stage

Bag #4 - Heads & paw backdrop

• Interesting Steps:
• 6: placing colored 1x2 tiles on the white baseplate makes the dance floor look like it's glowing.

• 22: A hinge and some angled plates result in a somewhat-secure 45°-rotated central pad. While this is locked in place by bricks and plates over the join point, it's still really only held together by the hinge's pivot. I would have preferred if a second hinge plate were added underneath as well, so that it's not the one joint taking all of the strain if the set is ever lifted or moved.

• 33: VIDIYO sets often have two-sided elements (these specific ones seem to be spotlights of some sort), with different colors so the app could recognize which side was facing the camera. To facilitate this, several techniques were used: here a turntable is stopped from rotating in a full circle by the impact of a regular 1x2 brick against 1x1 tiles; simple but effective, and a technique that could be used in more elaborate builds, for example flipping backdrops like a stage show's set pieces.

• 62: similarly to step 33 above, a turntable plate is used to allow the speakers to rotate, and 1x1 tiles stop them from going all the way around. What's different is that here a 4x4 plate with a 2x2 cutout is used as a housing around a 2x2 round brick, to keep the speaker tower from going off the vertical as it is spun around.

• Interesting Techniques:
• VIDIYO sets are fantasically colorful, and this set is no exception. I really like the pops of coral, dark turquoise, and dark pink against the background of dark purple. The gradient of dark pink, coral (the 1x1), medium lavender, and dark purple is also really nice, even if it gets covered up in step 74.

• It's also worth pointing out the use of A-shape wedges (which look to be about 45°) to hold up these back elements, turning the squares onto their point and holding them securely.
• Pain Points:
• As is often the case, the distribution of minifigures throughout this build is a bit odd. Having two right up front in bag one, and then nothing for the remaining two, doesn't feel quite right. One for each of the first three bags would have been better, in my opinion, especially since for bags 2 and 3 we're building the two wings of the stage: that way we get the lead singer for the center of the stage, and the two instrumentalists for each side of it, making more of a narrative of the build process.
• And of course, as is always the case with VIDIYO sets, the fact that the app was discontinued means that all of the effort that went into making the set recognizable to the app (the different BeatBits, the rotating elements, and the minifigures themselves) is now wasted. It also leaves those same design elements as just odd vestigial appendices. 
• The printing in these instructions (and, as I just now found out, even in the digital version) is really bad as far as color-matching goes. These tiles looks pink, but they are supposed to be coral: the set comes with 10 coral 1x2 tiles, but only 4 in dark pink, but the upper stairs and platform require 6 between them. Below you can see the photo of the printed instructions, and a screenshot of the PDF version:

• Play Features: 
  
• The set was designed to be used with the VIDIYO app, and therefore none of the play features (rotating speakers, rotating heads, rotating side-lights) don't do anything more than just spin 180°. 

• Overall:  I feel a bit like a broken record, but these sets are always so vibrant and lively...and yet also hamstrung by their reliance on an app that died shortly after the series was canceled. Creative build techniques and brightly-contrasting colors make them visually pleasing, and the characters of the minifigures are just fantastic—I've seen many other builders use them for fantasy figbarfs—and I myself have used BeatBits as minifigure-scale artwork in several MOCs.

This set was fun to put together, even if two bags ended up being mirror images and the minifigure distribution was less than ideal. It really pushed the limits of just how colorful something can be without being unpleasantly-so, and did a great job of expanding to enclose a space larger than one would expect. using the 3x2 brackets as both stairs and structural elements gave both an airiness and cohesion to the design, with black grounding the vibrant colors and linking everything together.

That said, the original price of $50 seems a bit high for what we get; the only unique pieces are the minifigures themselves (currently valued at $15 together), and a great many of the 514 parts are either plain tiles or—as shown below—small and basic.

Furthermore, the average resale value right now of a new set is just $55, only a 10% increase from when it retired four years ago. This suggests that either it's unpopular or it (like most of VIDIYO) is simply unknown. Either way, I'd recommend getting it, especially if you can find it for less than the original price, mostly for the minifigures and also for the somewhat rare colors. The stage also makes a good place to put other VIDIYO characters or your own minifig designs, and it wouldn't take much to modify the middle bit to straighten it all out so it could fit on a shelf, if needed.

Score (out of 5 🧱):

• Price: 🧱🧱🧱
• Process: 🧱🧱🧱
• Presentation: 🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱
• Play: 🧱
• Pieces: 🧱🧱🧱

• Total: 🧱🧱🧱

Lego Instructions: here