LEGO® CITY#60085 - 4X4 WITH POWERBOAT

Mad about cars, trains, ships and boats, surprisingly this set was never on the list of purchases until it was recently found on special, a third off! Now I have to admit, this has come to rank as one of my favourites to date.

Yes in terms of mini-fig/city scale the 4x4 is a little on the big side, and we can criticise that there is not much detail on the interior of the cab or the boat's cockpit (some dials would have been nice), none the less for what it is meant to be, it carries it off.

The 4x4 cab comes with the mandatory coffee mug and the boat actually floats, once again though there is only really space for one mini-fig - high speed boat of this nature would have been nice to accommodate two mini-figs inside. There are no printed pieces, so prepare yourself to apply a fair amount of stickers!

Note the mini-fig on the left only comes with a blue helmet as reflected below,

COGO 13306 - BATTLE SHIP

We have always been surprisingly impressed by the smaller Cogo sets and the final model as built, disappointment was however evident with this larger set consisting of 1037 pieces and including 4 mini-figs. The design is not of the highest standard which will take away from playability as some peices tend to get bumped off. The was ultimately bought for parts and in that area doesnt disappoint.

In our opinion the mini-figs look more like baseball players apposed to sailors!

DREAMLOCK # 5503 STAR RIDERS - SNOW BAT STARSCOUT

We found this at Toys R Us recently and at R 99.00 would make for good value based on a pieces count of 178.

The name of the set is a mouth full and it is clear that the model is based on the Snow Speeder as produced by Lego®

The set does however com with only one mini-figure and no other accessories. While the print on the mini-fig torso is great and well detailed a standard mini-fig helmet is used.

The bricks are of fair quality, it is however evident that the moulding process is not as accurate (lower tolerances) as more reputable brands. There is a significant absence of stickers or printed blocks which would have added some detail and improved the overall aesthetic of the completed model. An alternative build is available, there are however no instructions included.

ADVENT CALENDARS

Well the festive season has come and gone and we managed to actually control ourselves and open each box of the advent calendar on the corresponding day!

This was our first experience of the advent calendars and it was always a great way to start the day with morning coffee, unfortunately the days sped by and now its an 11 month wait for the next Advent Calendars!
 

Each set had some really great micro-builds and provides for some really useful pieces.

LSP - PLAY@WORK & FUN@WORK

We are proud to announce that we are now presenting our various workshops based on the of the methodologies of  Lego® Serious Play™, with two distinct approaches:

@Work provides a structured (yet flexible), facilitated approach to solve your business challenges in a playful & fun way, by-passing conscious thinking & finding common ground & solutions to complex issues.

fun@work tackles short challanges (viz. Productive Meetings), while play@work takes on the more complex issues (viz. Strategy Development).

The methodologies have proven to be a creative & effective solution for most business challenges, and adopted by many organisations world-wide (Google, Yahoo, Master Card, Lego, Coca Cola, SAB Miller, NASA, Unilever, Microsoft, Fujitsu, Pfizer, Unicef, Toyota, to mention a few.) Time to join the fun and let us introduce to your business and inject some serious play!

We tailor all interventions to your organisations specific needs and desired outcomes and are happy to provide a short introductory workshop at reduced rates. Drop us a mail and lets get your team building their way to a dynamic future.

KALAHARI vs TAKE-A-LOT

As many of you will know kalahari.com has become part of takealot and somehow we just can't get used to the change. We can't fault takealot, orders are processed and delivered quickly, it does however seem that they do not have as large a range of blocks as kalahari used to carry. Secondly our biggest bug-bear, kalahari packages were always wrapped up and the contents protected with outer covering and padding on the inside.

Now deliveries arrive simply bound together with the courier lables placed directly on the boxes. Boxes are squashed and dented, trying to remove the courier lables without damaging the box proves impossible...

HAPPY 2016

Here's to 2016 and beyond! There are many new block sets on the way in 2016, and we have already pre-ordered the new Brick Bank modular. We are also really excited about the new Speed Champions sets with the introduction of American Muscle cars...

Keep on bricking and have a blast in 2016!