Set Review - #75968-1: 4 Privet Drive - Harry Potter

Another of the 2020 Harry Potter series… #75968-1: 4 Privet Drive. Also released on 24 August 2020 in the US, this one cost $69.99 in the US. With 797 pieces, it works out to $0.088/piece. This set captures a scene from the second book/movie titled “The Chamber of Secrets.” It’s where Ron rescues Harry from the room he was locked into so he can go to Hogwarts. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, look it up on line.

The set has the standard box with the front showing the full set while the back shows the other side of the set along with some play features.

This set contains 5 parts bags, a sticker sheet, an 8x16 plate, and the instructions. Bag one includes a piece separator.

Bag one starts off on the bottom floor with some furniture, the door (with stickers to show the letters coming in, but they can’t fit due to the boards nailed on), stairs up to the next level, and then the street sign with an owl. Proportions wise, I think they fit a decent amount of details in considering the size of the set and it seems to match the movie scene well. The minifigure for Mr. Dursley is in bag one.

The second bag finishes up the first floor with some details like the fireplace, carpeting, a plant on an end table, and the railing leading to the second level. Additionally it finishes the small room under the stairs where Harry was locked away in the first book. This section has a small door on the one side and then uses hinge pieces to open up to the small space.

The minifigure for Dudley is in this bag.

The third bag starts the second floor where Harry’s room is located. It adds the walls, a bed and some details to include a copy of the Daily Prophet newspaper, a picture of Harry’s parents, and some clippings from Hogwarts. It also adds the window that Mr. Dursley bars up. This window is placed in using friction and there are no studs in contact with the frame so it can easily be pulled out.

On the first floor by the fireplace, a Technic gear is added. This is connected to a small mechanism that allows you to slip 1x2 tile letters down a slot. They can then come out the fireplace similar to the movie how Harry wanted his letter welcoming him to school. The gear allows you to open or close the slot as desired.

The front of the home has some plant life for decoration. I like how they did the roof with the slope bricks offset by one tile each. It’s a pretty simple way to add in some details without making it an over technical roof build.

The Mrs. Dursley minifigure comes in this bag.

The fourth bag finishes the roof. It uses the same technique as the small porch area on the first level. I’m a fan of how it looks. If you don’t like it or the set, at least you get a bunch of the black slope pieces to use in MOCs as desired.

This bag contains Dobby and the cake/pudding Dobby levitates over the Dursley’s guest. It also contains Hedwig which is the same figure from #75969-1: Hogwart’s Astronomy Tower and #75979-1: Hedwig.

The fifth build completes the set with the Harry minifigure and the Weasley’s flying car. It’s a different build from the original one we saw in #75953-1: Hogwart’s Whomping Willow. The two minifigures don’t fit in super well, but the truck has space for Harry’s trunk.

Lastly, there’s the final view in the side room of the house. Not much has changed there other than the light on the outside.

Final look at all the minifigures… There are 6 in total plus a Hedwig. Not a bad mix if you are a Harry Potter minifigure collector.

Overall, it’s a good build with some good play features and it captures the movie scenes well. There are some decent pieces you can use in MOCs if you don’t want to keep the set together. The small size of the set with the ~$70 price tag make it seem a bit overpriced. I picked it up on sale here for ~$52 and I recently saw it on sale on Amazon.com for around $56 so better. Unless you’re a big Harry Potter fan or collect the minifigures, I would steer clear of this one. Or maybe if you can find a better sale. This one seems to me like a $39 set.

What are your thoughts on this one?

Happy building!

Set Review - #75967-1: Forbidden Forest Umbridge’s Encounter - Harry Potter

Continuing my review of the 2020 Harry Potter sets, this one is #75967-1: Forbidden Forest Umbridge’s Encounter. It depicts a scene from the fifth book/movie titled “Order of the Phoenix.” The set contains 253 pieces and retails for $29.99 in the US. This works out to $0.119 per piece. The US release date was 24 August 2020. The set was released on 3 May in Germany and I found it on sale for around $22.

Nothing special about the packaging. Full set on the front with play features on the back.

The contents are 2 parts bags, 2 instruction booklets, and a small sticker sheet.

One highlight for me in this set was seeing the sand green sausage. I thought it was new, but apparently this is the third set it has been in. I’ve only seen this in red so nice to see another color.

Bag 1 builds a small tree structure that opens up to include some of Grawp’s items. It also includes a Harry Potter minifigure and 2 Centaurs. For minifigure collectors, these are probably a big draw in this set.

Bag 2 includes Hermione and Professor Dolores Umbridge. The build is Grawp who is a relative of Hagrid (I forget the exact tie). In seeing the box, I thought Grawp would be a lot of BURP pieces, but it uses a lot of SNOT techniques and not as many molded pieces. The hands are molded and the face, but everything else is regular pieces.

Overall, not too much special to this set besides the Centaur figures. Probably a must buy for Harry Potter collectors. I recommend finding options to get it on sale as it’s a bit much at over 10 cents per piece.

Happy building!

Visiting an Open LEGO® Display in 2020 - Gartenschau - Kaiserslautern, Germany

The Gartenschau in Kaiserslautern was closed in early 2020 as COVID-19 first hit Germany. Thankfully, it re-opened and I finally was able to get there to see the updated LEGO® display. So we donned our masks and went in…

Before moving on, here are the links to the previous visits I’ve had to the Gartenschau:
2018, 2019 (part 1), 2019 (part 2)

Here’s the welcome sign. It says die große LEGO® ausstellung (the large LEGO® display) and it is hosted by Lauter Steine E.V. If you live locally, I believe it closes on 31 October and then re-opens in April.

The start of the display had a few cases with some MOCs. Some of the minifigures had masks added to them.

Next up, a large MOC of a 2x4 red brick. Then there was another case with a few MOCs and some sets.

In that case (shown above) were a few MOCs designed by Daniel Krentz. He was the designer of the #375 LEGO Classic Yellow Castle (shown below). Daniel passed away in 2016. There were a few MOCs from Daniel in the case purchased during a Fairy Bricks fundraiser.

The first picture looks like a Native American totem pole only out of bricks and in various build styles.

Next is a case with some train MOCs and some Formula 1 race car MOCs. The bottom has the VW Bus set with some VW MOC. Further down is a space shuttle.

There was no sign next to this one, but it looks like a recreation of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. It’s a very impressive build!

I apologize for the reflection and lighting. The displays have plexiglass in front of them (smart move) and the lighting is not meant for cameras.

This MOC has been there previously and is a western US scene from the 1800s or so. I like the use of the wallpaper background incorporated with the brick background.

I wasn’t as big of a Castle fan as a kid so I’m not sure if these next pictures are sets or MOCs, but they are in the Castle theme.

I didn’t see a sign next to this one, but perhaps this is a MOC of an actual castle in Germany? The German flag is on top of the main structure so maybe.

This MOC was there last year and it’s a build of the electricity plant of the city of Kaiserslautern in 1894. I like the hot air balloon to mix things up a bit from the industrial look. I’m also a fan of the tall smoke stack they build. I’m curious if it is brick only or if there is a supporting structure inside.

Here’s an impressive build of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany. If you look closely, you an see some fun details like Santa Claus.

Here is another Berlin landmark. The Reichstag where the German Parliament meets. I saw this build at a show last year. The new addition this time is the park nearby with the LEGO logo in brick flower form.

Here is a MOC of the Fruchthalle in Kaiserslautern. It’s a music venue for performances. The MOC is built from ~80,000 bricks. It took about a year to build and was built in 2016. I’ll let you read the description in German in the picture below.

I’m not sure if this MOC is new or just hasn’t been displayed in the past few years, but I found it to be the most impressive one there this year. The Frankfurt train station. First picture is the sign on the display letting you know what it is.

Here’s the full display… or at least most of it. I like how they added in the mirrors so you could see the trains. I didn’t get any close ups of the trains, but they had a mix of sets (the Disney train) and a few MOC trains.

A few more pictures of the station. I think the main building is impressive. The curve they were able to recreate in brick is really impressive.

Added into the scene were many of the modular buildings. I didn’t see the Cafe Corner or Green Grocer, but they have the City Hall and a few of the less recent buildings.

Nearby were a few buildings that are re-creations of actual buildings in the Frankfurt area.

I don’t know if this is of an actual train station or not. If you zoom in on the sign, Reiichelsheim (Odenwald) is an actual place. Not sure if they just wanted the sign on the station or not.

The large recreation of the brick fence behind the train station is cool!

I saw these MOCs of Venetian buildings last fall. You can see a few more pictures of them here.

A Ninjago scene.

The city scene has remained a constant over the past few years, but every year they make some changes and throw in some new things. Like last year, they have a fair, a rural area with farms, a European style city center walking area, and a more downtown/urban area. This year included more lights to include LEDs in the modular buildings, a subway type train route (the trains weren’t running while we were there), and a new train station to name a few.

I’m trying out a new (to me) web feature. You should be able to click an arrow or swipe on your phone/tablet to advance through the city scene pictures. Let me know in the comments if it doesn’t work.

I believe this scene was there in previous years. It’s a European style town/city next to hill/mountain. I’m going to guess Bavaria… maybe? The detailing on this one is very impressive and I like the colors too.

An imperial ship from the Pirate’s theme and then some recreations from JK Brickworks.

Some brick built birds which appear to be pretty close to scale. They are designed by Felix Jaensch. You can see his work here on Flickr.

The Dom…

Here’s the Cologne Cathedral again. It’s been there every year that I have visited and I still find it to be an incredible MOC.

Here’s the room dedicated to the space themes (should be able to click through the pictures). There are Ice Planet, M-Tron, Futuron, a large MOC of a ship, and some MOCs in the various space theme styles. This room is awesome! It makes me want to build some MOCs to add to them. I was a huge M-Tron fan and still have my sets.

Here are some architecture themed sets and MOCs. The Statue of Liberty (#21042-1), a MOC of Christ the Redeemer (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), a version of the Taj Mahal, and a few churches.

Various MOCs on display.

Star Wars™ sets have to make an appearance. Here are a few of the UCS sets on display.

A tall brick skyscraper. The top is lit up with LEDs.

Here is the logo for SteinHelden.de. This is a store located on site and they have an online store (only ships within Germany). It loosely translates to “brick heroes” and the business is set up to employ the disabled. A number of the workers are in wheel chairs or have other disabilities. It’s a cool concept!

Here is a microscale representation of the city of Kaiserslautern. Specifically it is the Rathaus (City Hall) and the Pfaltztheater.

A larger scale version of the Burj Khalifa.

A large scene of ancient Egypt.

The western US circa 1800s.

Last display case with some modified sets to include some Ideas sets, the James Bond Car, and some Harry Potter sets. There are also some fighter jet and biplane MOCs on the bottom row.

Another awesome display this year. So glad I was able to visit despite all of the COVID-19 closures. Thanks to the team who puts this amazing exhibit on! Hope you enjoyed my picture tour.

Happy building!

Set Review - #75966-1 - Hogwarts Room of Requirements - Harry Potter

Continuing with the 2020 Harry Potter series, here is #75966-1: Hogwarts Room of Requirements. It was released in the US on 24 August 2020 (3 May 2020 in Germany). It contains 193 pieces and retails for $19.99 in the US. This works out to $0.104 per piece. I picked it up here in Germany on sale for just under $17.

Onto the review…

Here’s the box with the set on the front. It is the standard front with the Harry Potter logo, pictures of the actors, and the minifigures on the bottom. The back shows some of the play features as well as the other side of the set.

The contents are two numbered parts bags, the instruction booklet, and a sticker sheet. It’s not a ton of stickers, but I am not a fan of the small stickers you have to place on a larger panel or brick.

The first bag builds part of the room. It includes the outer sliding door that opens when the students need it to. There is a door behind it so they can get in. I like the larger translucent blue bricks for the windows and am trying to think of some cool ways to use them elsewhere.

This bag has the Luna Lovegood minifigure.

At 193 pieces, the build goes quickly. Bag 2 includes the remainder of the set to include Technic elements to knock down the proclamations. For minifigures you get Harry, Hermione, and the training Dementor. You also get some patronus charms to include a rabbit and… a gopher? Finally you get some “flick pieces” to shoot your charm from the minifigs and have them land somewhere on the floor for you to find later.

Overall, it’s not a bad set. You get a few decent pieces, there are minimal stickers, the minifigures are okay, and you get some translucent pieces. It’s not a bad set to pick up if you are a Harry Potter fan and you can get it at a discount. The set has holes for Technic pins so you can connect it to others released over the past few years to create a larger scene. Beyond that, not much else to say. It’s a smaller set with not a lot too it, but it’s designed for that price point so you can’t expect much more.

What are your thoughts on this one?

Happy building!

Creations for Charity - 2020 Campaign is Now

I apologize for being late tot he game, but the 2020 Creations for Charity drive started on 15 October and runs through 30 November 2020. This is your chance to pick up some cool custom MOCs and minifigures with all of the money going to buy LEGO sets for disadvantaged kids. The charity is all volunteer run so you’re not giving a portion to pay someone’s salary or anything. If you want more details or want to participate, you can go to CreationsforCharity.org.

They also have a short video explaining the program posted below. Thanks for giving and happy building!

BrickCon 2020 - My Experience

I posted about some of the swag I received and a bit on BrickCon 2020 here. This post will focus on the content. I attended a Brickworld Virtual back in May 2020 and that was a number of online rooms that yoiu could go into and out of at will. There were a few presentations throughout the day as well. BrickCon was a lot more than that. They had multiple sessions scheduled every hour, a Discord server running full time, Zoom rooms to hang out in, and lots of prizes throughout. All of the MOCs on display were on a private Flickr group page for viewing. While I would have preferred the opportunity to go in person, meet people, ask questions of MOC builders, and not be stuck behind my computer, the experience was definitely worth it in a COVID-19 context. Here’s a run through of some of the events I attended.

Tiago Catarino is a former LEGO Designer turned YouTuber from Portugal. You can visit his YouTube channel here. Now he posts small builds that you can do yourself with minimal pieces. He also has a few videos on what it was like to work at LEGO and why he quit (spoiler alert… it was not because he hated LEGO). Tiago had two sessions. The first was a Q&A for registered AFOLs only where he gave a short presentation and then people could ask him questions. The second was a build with Tiago session open to the public. I attended the registered AFOL session. Tiago shared some great info about working at LEGO, being a YouTuber, and some of his other experiences. Here’s a screen shot of him below.

The next one I attended was a public session where Stuart Harris presented to the public. If you don’t know him, he’s the lead designer for the LEGO House®. Stuart gave a presentation about how the LEGO House® was developed and built. Then he gave a description of each of the zones and what you can do there. Below are a few pictures from the presentation that I grabbed. The first is one of Stuart’s creations/Stuart working at the LEGO House®. The second is a brick built model of the Minifig Cafe.

Another one I attended was with registered AFOLs only and was a presentation by Gaute Munch (Lego Product Technology Director) and Flemming Jepsen (from the Powered Up team) on Powered UP. I am not an expert in this area by any means so a lot of the conversation was a bit over my cranium, but it was interesting to here. My experience has been motorizing the Crocodile Locomotive, but there is a lot that LEGO has in the works. Just after BrickCon, LEGO released a new version of the app which allows customization. They are working on a rechargeable battery box, new software, and a bunch more. Gaute and Flemming took some tough questions from the audience and handled them very well. I’m glad I participated in this one. The screen shot below is one of the slides with Gaute presenting.

Another event was a keynote where Andrew Becraft (The Brothers Brick Founder and Editor-in-Chief) interviewed Skip Kodak (Executive Vice President, Americas Market Group - LEGO). This was an interesting conversation covering a range of topics from sustainability to COVID-19 impacts for the company, to the adult focused products and lines. I’m glad I attended this one and thought it was great that LEGO offered up someone from upper management to participate.

Throughout the event, a number of AFOLs got on to share their MOCs. One of them was with Ben Smith who lives in the UK. He builds in the space theme and has some pretty impressive MOCs. You can see what he builds on his Flickr page. The screen shot below shows a classic space set, but he had a modern take on it and some other larger space crafts to show off. The benefits of having a virtual event is to get folks to participate in other countries to include people like Ben (and me!).

LEGO Designer Chris McVeigh gave a presentation and Q&A. If you aren’t familiar with Chris and his work, he designed the Brick Sketches™ and the latest Winter Village set the #10275-1: Elf Clubhouse. Chris shared his AFOL experience, how he was hired by LEGO, and then some details on designing the Winter Village set.

I sadly did not get to see this full presentation, but Graham Hancock gave a presentation on LEGO’s foray into catering to adult fans. If you’re not familiar with Graham, he run Brick Fanatics and is the deputy editor for Blocks Magazine. The part of the presentation I saw had details on the history of sets focused for adults. Some I remember and some I hadn’t heard of. And of course some that I wish I had.

I also attended a presentation and Q&A with Henrik Andersen. Henrik is a LEGO Designer who might be best known for his recent work on #75252-1: Imperial Star Destroyer. He’s been with the company for a while and showed some of the other sets he worked on an parts he developed. He went through the details of how they develop parts and showed what works and what doesn’t work. Most notably (for me anyway) I learned he was the developer of the cheese slope.

One last presentation I attended was with George Patelis. George lives in Greece and goes by PatGeo313 on his YouTube channel and Flickr gallery. He made a short video on some of his latest MOCs on YouTube here. Definitely check his work out as he has some impressive stuff.

That was a quick glimpse into my BrickCon 2020 experience. I had a lot of fun even if it wasn’t in person. I hope I can attend again next year and maybe some day get there in person.

Until then, happy building!

Set Review - #31109-1: Skull Island - Creator 3-in-1

Here is the last review for #31109-1. The Pirate Ship is here and the Pirate Inn is here. Skull Island is the smallest of the builds and I found there were a lot of pieces left over when it was complete. The design includes a brick built raft, a brick built row boat, and then the island itself. The island includes a brick built palm tree and a brick built monkey. The skull itself protects a pirate treasure of gold coins (1x1 round plates) and the treasure chest. The skull is mounted by a Technic axle and you can spin a wheel to have it move up and down. It doesn’t move much, but it would scare away anyone trying to steal the treasure.

The pictures below include the front and the back of the build. Overall, I think the skull could look slightly more realistic, but I guess that’s what is left up to the builder to adjust as required. The three builds for this set are all great and I could see wanting to keep all three assembled (I don’t plan to buy two more of these sets). They all would be a great part of a pirate scene or layout.

I haven’t bought a 3-in-1 set in a while, but this one was definitely worth it. I highly recommend this one… especially if you can find it on sale like I did. The builds are great and the pieces available are useful in other builds.

What are your thoughts on this one? A great addition for your Pirates or a lame attempt?

Happy building!

BrickCon 2020 - Intro and SWAG

I attended BrickWorld Virtual in May of 2020 and when I saw that BrickCon was also virtual this year (2-4 October), I had to sign up. If you’ve never head of it, BrickCon is normally a Seattle based convention. Based on a search online, it has been going on since around 2002 and is usually the first weekend of October. Hopefully someone can correct me if I’m wrong.

The convention was in the Pacific Coast of the US time zone so being 9 hours different didn’t help much as I would miss a bunch of the late night/early morning happenings. I did however sign up to be a “trusted virtual guide.” I don’t know how trusted I can be with leading people around virtual conventions, but it gave me a chance to help out and meet some new people. I’ll go into the convention in a separate post. For now I want to talk about the swag.

To attend as an AFOL you had to pay a bit more than the $5 the public paid, but they had various levels ranging from $25 to $90. I went for the biggest package being that it was my first BrickCon and I wanted to see what it was all about. So here’s what I got…

Tee-Shirts!

The first one is the Convention shirt and was designed by Kevin Hinkle. I definitely had my phone and computer on so that accurately reflects me(no tablet though). The next one is my TVG shirt to designate that I was one while on screen. I didn’t have the background set up for Zoom and you really couldn’t see the shirt, but that’s okay.

Also included were a few printed bricks. You had the option to get some custom ones so I got one that had my blog name. It also came with the yellow BrickCon 2020 brick. Finally, it had the white one which on the back says it is a recognized AFOL Networking Event. I stacked that on top of my BrickWorld brick so I can say I have attended two.

Still more swag… Next up was a baby minifig with the BrickCon logo on its shirt. Super awesome! Also, there was a 2x4 tan tile with the logo for this convention to include the date. Note the blue plate behind them is just from my collection to take the picture. It didn’t come with the swag pack.

Additionally, there was this fun pin with the logo. I’m not sure of the reason for the split up. Is it supposed to be like the shape of the LEGO House®?

I have not been to a physical convention yet, but apparently BrickCon hands out bags of parts for you to trade with other attendees. They did the same this year and you could then set up trade with people who live near you or I guess mail them to each other. I got six different parts and thankfully they are not standard bricks or plates. There’s a printed window panel, a tile with studs on the bottom, a larger window frame, a round 2x2 with an odd bottom (not sure what to call the light greenish one), a gold colored slope, and then a light gray 1x1 roof type slope. I’ll have to figure out how to build with these, but since I had never seen most of them, I’m pleased with what I was sent.

Lastly is the Con model. This one was designed by Chris Molloy. He’s the managing editor for the Brother’s Brick and a LEGO Ambassador. I have not built the set yet, but will and will post a review. The model is in a post disaster type world with a space minifigure exploring the ruins. The space minifigure comes in a rare orange color in the classic space theme. There are a few other cool pieces included. I look forward to digging into it.

Okay, that’s the cool swag. Are you drooling yet? I was super excited to get the container in the mail.

I’ll post later on some of the events I attended.

Happy building!

Set Review - #75969-1: Hogwarts Astronomy Tower - Harry Potter

The Harry Potter sets are back for another round. The 2020 releases came out in late August in the US and in early May in Germany. A few of them are already on sale here in Europe so I picked them up and will let you know what I think.

The first is #75969-1: Hogwarts Astronomy Tower that was released on 24 August 2020. It contains 971 pieces and 8 minifigures and retails for $99.99 in the US. That works out to $0.103 per piece. I found it locally for around $74 and thought that was a much better deal.

The box format looks similar to last year. The front shows the set with a digital background and the three main characters from the movie in the upper right. The back shows some of the play features and the back side of the set.

The set contains 6 parts bags and the instructions which are wrapped up in plastic with the stickers. There is also an 8x16 dark gray plate that comes separate.

The sticker sheet isn’t too bad although I don’t like trying to put the smaller stickers on the larger pieces as you’ll see later. I can never seem to properly center them.

Bag one builds the green house. It’s a simple build, but the roof is done differently. There are no stud connections and instead it is attached based on friction between the pieces. I found it to fit well and wasn’t super loose. This bag has the minifigures for Harry and Professor Horace Slughorn. It also has Hedwig the owl.

The only other notable part of this build are the Mandrake plants which are printed 1x1 round bricks. They have a plant piece attached and I thought this was a nice detail in the set and I was glad it wasn’t a sticker.

The second bag starts the base of the tower. It’s a fairly simple build, but I do like the curves and arches and how they add detail to the castle look. The use of stickers on the front columns wasn’t fun to apply. You can see from my picture that I didn’t put them on evenly.

The inside of this part has a classroom. It is maybe a potion classroom with various items to pour into pots. This is a cool part of the set, but is rather small. It needs expansion in my opinion.

Bag 3 builds the roof of the bottom portion of the tower. I like the design and the use of angled plates to create the detail. The spires are fun too. The inside adds a few candles hanging from the wall.

The fourth bag adds to the base of the tower which is hooked into the other section with Technic pins. This section appears to just be a hallway. There’s a shovel hanging up and well that’s about it. There’s also a decoration with red lanterns/balls. It appears this is part of the scene from book number 6 “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” where Professor Slughorn hosts a “Slug Club” party before Christmas. This set includes a table with a food set up and Neville serving a drink. Hermione is the other minifigure included here.

The fifth bag builds the next floor up and includes Luna Lovegood. This floor is the Ravenclaw common room which I don’t ever recall seeing in the movies. Was it mentioned in the books? It’s a pretty simple set up with a few beds, the house colors as a sticker, and some books on a brick books shelf.

Bag six builds the last floor and roof for the astronomy tower. It has the actual astronomy tower portions with the telescope. The minifigure included here is Malfoy. While I like how this set looks from the front, I would have liked to have seen how the telescope points out. Is there a retractable roof piece or something that opens? Again, another part not seen in the movie, but it would have been interesting to build or it could be something you build on your own.

As mentioned, you get 8 minifigures in this set and a Hedwig. Hedwig appears in six sets this year in the same manner so if you’re looking to get the owl, no need to get the most expensive set. The minifigures all appear in this form only in this set so if you collect Harry Potter minifigures, sorry…Also of note, these all have dual expressions. I tend to go with the happy or not mad expressions when I do reviews. The remainder of the expressions are either mad or a look of disgust or something similar.

Here’s the final build. Overall, I think it’s a cool structure from the front and I look forward to some day having the space to connect the sets from the previous few years. While I understand the back is open for kids to play with, I think it would be cool to have the full set filled in. Perhaps some day I will work on a minifigure scale Hogwarts castle.

I recommend trying to find a sale on this one before buying. It sits a little about the $0.10 per piece point at retail and I think it could be slightly cheaper (although you are paying for the license as well).

Happy building!

Set Review - #31109-1: Pirate Inn - Creator 3-in-1

This is part two of the set review. You can see part one here. I built the Pirate Inn after the ship just based on how the instructions are set up. The ship is first and you build it following numbered bags. Then the inn is next. You had to take apart the ship first to get all the pieces. It then takes a bit longer to build as you aren’t building by bag, but searching for pieces through the 1,264 available. I could have made it easier by sorting the pieces first, but what’s the fun in that?

I didn’t take pictures of the build process, but instead included a few pictures of the final build. It appears as though the ship was designed first and then the designers figured out what they could build based on the pieces available. Or maybe the inn was designed already and they just had to tweak it for parts availability. Either way, you will have a bunch of pieces leftover when the inn is complete so don’t fret.

Here’s what you get at the end.
-the inn
-a brick built horse and cart
-the same 3 minifigures only one now has an accordian
-a brick built bird on the top of the inn

The build has some interesting features. The front has a small crane that you can crank up and down. I’m not sure what you’d use it for, but it’s a cool looking feature. The crow’s nest is on top so you can look out or maybe someone sleeps there?

I don’t know my styles of architecture, but I like the front façade of the inn. The angle of the roof, the windows, and colors all seem to make it fit right in with the pirates theme. The V roof in the front left of the house is made by connecting plates to ball and hinge joints. I had never seen that method of build before and I like how it was done.

The back of the inn folds out so you can have access to it. There are 3 beds on the upper level and then the lower level has a table and some cups for beverages.

Outside is a large wheel which I assume is a water wheel. It spins either by you rotating the wheel itself or by spinning the Technic pin that is inside the inn. You could hook it to a motor if you really wanted to. This feature would help you build out this set to connect it to a stream running down from a hill/mountain and meeting the bay that the inn overlooks. And in the bay would be a pirate ship… and you’d have to buy another set #31109… and LEGO continues to make money…

Last shot is a closer view of inside the inn. I’m not sure what the build in the center on the ground floor is. Maybe a clock?

Overall, it’s a good build with some good techniques. Since it is limited by parts, a few of the steps don’t make sense like using three 1x1 pieces versus a 1x3. I get why it’s done that way so not a major complaint. Along with the ship, this build would fit well with any pirate scene and is a welcome addition to the slight come back of the LEGO Pirate theme through other themes.

Onto the third build… Skull Island…

Happy building!