Purity: A3371 Star Trek Jellyfish Review

We finish up Star Trek week with the Jellyfish set.

This one has a slightly higher piece count, but the same MSRP of $4.99.  Which means we're looking at a price per piece of $0.12.

Instructions.  No stickers this time.

Ooohh, lots of Trans-Blue pieces, one Trans-Clear bracket, two of those claws I like so much, a "motor" brick and a handful of other parts.

Those large spike pieces along the bottom look really interesting.

I built a small frame,

A small starship,

and a potential station all at the same time.

The Questions:
Can you build a frame, or frames, right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  At retail price, above.  (-10) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)

If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)

Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Seeing as I built three items simultaneously, yes..  (+5)
Score: +5 (B+).  It's a fun set.  As with the other Star Trek sets, it suffers from horrible pricing.  The part and color selection is better with this one.  I'll have to get more of this set before it disappears.

Purity: A3369 Klingon D7 Review

Continuing Star Trek Week, we have the Kre-O small scale Klingon D7 Battlecruiser.  Like the previous set, this one also has a MSRP of $4.99.  Which gives us a price per piece of $0.13.

Instructions and stickers.

The round Trans-Red piece is interesting as is the rounded 1x2 Plate.  As with the first set there's a Light Brick I probably won't use.  The 1x2 Modified Bricks w/Studs on 1 Side are pretty neat too.

Once again, that base will never get used.  The stand might.  The 1x4 Tiles w/ Studs on each end look neat.  The 2x2 piece in the bottom middle is a Rounded Inverted Slope.That Dark Grey is even darker than the old Lego color.

A small 4P frame with a giant shield Attachment for 2B.


The Questions:
Can you build a frame, or frames, right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  At retail price, above.  (-10) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)

If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)

Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  No.  (-5)
Score: -5 (B-).  It's an okay set.  As with the Enterprise set, it suffers from horrible pricing.

Purity: A3368 Star Trek Enterprise Review

Should this be Star Trek Week?  Yes, I think it should.  Let's start with a review of the Kre-O Star Trek Enterprise small scale model.

Front of package.  Those batteries that are included must already be in the light brick, because I did not see a separate package for them.  MSRP for this set is $4.99.  Which puts the price-per-piece at $0.13.

Here's the back of package.  As you can see there are other sets available at this size.

Parts in package.  If you're careful and don't destroy the package when opening it, you can use it to store the pieces for later.

Instructions and stickers.

Parts 1.  I see a Light Brick, which is probably going to sit around gathering dust because I never have any idea of what to do with them.  I also see something that looks like one of the new Lego brackets.  Those have been out for what, a year?  There's also some of the textured Cheese Slopes that everyone likes.

Parts 2.  That Enterprise logo base is never going to see any use.  And that Trans-Blue stand is going to be a pain too.  Those funky 1x2/1x2 brackets are really fun though.

Here's a quick frame I built.  I'm calling it the "zoomer".

The Questions:
Can you build a frame, or frames, right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  At retail price, above.  (-10) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  No.  (-5)
Score: -5 (B-).  It's not a bad set.  It just suffers from the same problem all Kre-O licensed sets do, horrible pricing.

Non-Human 9

Here's another handful of non-human mechs.

CRUB by 1000Nuglets.  This one looks to based on the Hero Factory Mask, Insect.

Spiderfrog by Kark Oohlu.  Seems like I'm always blogging about something he builds.  :-)

Alpha Robot Protobug by AlexNidhogg.  Tiny, but could be part of a swarm or dispersed systems mech.

IMG_0357 by Simmon12.  Looks good for another Ijad variant.  I really like the Travis brick at the front with the 1x1 Round bricks coming off it.

незнакомый by 1000Nuglets.  The title is the Russian word for unfamiliar or strange.  I think it fits.

Review: 41506 Teslo Mixel

I'm continuing with my reviews of the Mixel line.

This is Teslo, from the electricity tribe.  He has 54 pieces for $4.99, which makes him $0.09 per piece.  I mainly bought this one for that trans-colored "electricity" piece you can see on the front of the package.

Here are the instructions and parts bag.

That is a lot of Cheese Slopes over there on the left.  I see some Clip Plates and Clip Bricks.  There's also that neat "electricity" piece and the flexible small tubing too.  And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the new ball joints and the small bow pieces.  Oh, I almost forgot the "Ice Cream Cone" in Black.  Forget ice cream cones, that's a ready made microscale gun muzzle.

Here we go.  A little something in 4P scale as a proof of concept.  You're still left with plenty of parts to monkey around with too.

The Questions:
Can you build a frame, or frames, right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: 20 (A+).  Our third Lego set with an A+ rating and another Mixels set with the top rating.

A Rising Tide Raises All Ships

The title of this blog post was a saying I heard this weekend.  It means that good fortune benefits all who are involved in a certain enterprise or area.  I'd heard it before but I think it has more relevance after this post over on the Dark Cloud blog.  I know he's kidding when he states we have a "rivalry".  I hope people realize that and that any perceived rivalry is the furthest thing from the truth.  I like the fact that I inspired him to write his own reviews of building block sets for MFZ.  It means I have created something of value within the community through my blogging efforts.  Along the lines of the title, here are a few blog posts that I've come across that only have a solitary mention of Mobile Frame Zero.  I figure that maybe I can drive some traffic towards them by letting you know about them.

Build / Paint /Play made one post about MFZ.  This was back in 2012, then he never talked about it again.  I hope he's still playing.

Another one shot post about MFZ from Weasel Miniatures.

Another one-off blog post.

To Hit Arse Class 0 has a few posts mentioning MFZ.

The Week's Work has a one-off post.

Aaron's Gaming Blog has one too.

Ludo Box has a couple of posts about MFZ.  This is the only one to be found by tags.  The others you have to look for.  Apparently the blog is written by Ybliss.

So remember, more views for me is more views for you is more views for another person.  The MFZ community rises and falls together.  Spread the word so we can all rise.

The Price of Lego 4

The first time I did this I was comparing the prices of several sets in two different lines from Lego.  This time around I'm just going to be looking at one, the Lego Movie line.

All of these sets feature some wacky combination of genres, like the way we used to build when we were kids.  This leads to a wide selection of parts in each set.  And, to top it all off, more than half of the sets feature a Price-Per-Peice lower than the Golden Ratio.  All the information has been pulled from Brickset this time around as Bricklink still has not completed inventories on some of the sets in the line.

Number	Title	Theme	Year	Pieces	Minifigs	MSRP	PpP
70800	Getaway Glider	Lego Movie	2014	104	3	$12.99	$0.13
70801	Melting Room	Lego Movie	2014	122	3	$12.99	$0.11
70802	Bad Cop's Pursuit	Lego Movie	2014	314	2	$29.99	$0.10
70803	Cloud Cuckoo Palace	Lego Movie	2014	197	3	$19.99	$0.10
70804	Ice Cream Machine	Lego Movie	2014	344	3	$29.99	$0.08
70805	Trash Chomper	Lego Movie	2014	389	3	$29.99	$0.08
70806	Castle Cavalry	Lego Movie	2014	424	3	$29.99	$0.07
70807	Metalbeard's Duel	Lego Movie	2014	412	3	$34.99	$0.09
70808	Super Cycle Chase	Lego Movie	2014	514	4	$49.99	$0.10
70809	Lord Business' Evil Lair	Lego Movie	2014	738	6	$69.99	$0.10
70811	Flying Flusher	Lego Movie	2014	351	3	$29.99	$0.09
70812	Creative Ambush	Lego Movie	2014	473	4	$39.99	$0.09
70813	Rescue Reinforcements	Lego Movie	2014	859	5	$69.99	$0.08
			Totals:	3771	45	$460.87	$1.22
			Average:	403	3.5	$35.45	$0.09

So, if the average price-per-piece of the line is $0.09, why can't Lego do this with more of their sets?  I can understand Star Wars and the superhero sets being expensive as you have to pay off licensing fees.  The City line, on the other hand, has been ruinously expensive lately and that makes no sense at all.  Anyway.  If you see these sets on sale, buy them.  Eleven of thirteen are at or below the Golden Ratio.  How can you go wrong with that?

In case you haven't figured it out, this post is a sneaky way of saying all of these are Good Sets for Parts.  Except for maybe the two smallest sets.  :-)