Good Sets for Parts 18

It's been almost a year since I've done a "Good Sets for Parts" post, so let's look at some of the new releases for 2022.

43203 Aurora, Merida and Tiana’s Enchanted Creations.  The price is $70 but it has some nice colors and parts along with those crystal/boulder pieces.

21180 Minecraft: The Guardian Battle, this one looks to have some nice parts at a good price point. 

40524 Sunflowers, has me intrigued -- plenty of Clip Plates, $0.07 per piece, and the last Botanical set I reviewed was really good.

76204 Black Panther Mech Armor, Iron Man Mech Armor, and Wolverine Mech Armor are the next set of releases in the Marvel Mech armor series and this series has been good for MFZ since the start.

71761 Zane's Power Up Mech.  New parts, Ball Joints, and cool colors at $0.10 per piece.

71760 Jay's Thunder Dragon.  It's $0.14 per piece but it has new parts, Ball Joints, and cool colors.  I should have a review coming soon.

75321 Star Wars Razor Crest Microfighter.  It's a lot of Dark/Light Bley but, Microfighters are usually a good source of parts for Intercept Orbit.

42132 Technic Motorcycle.  I'm always a fan of small Technic sets and at $0.08 per part that just makes it all the sweeter.

40540 Lion Dance Guy Brick Headz.  Okay, this one is a little more personal to me but, Brick Headz sets are a good starting point for Intercept Orbit and it's $0.04 per piece!

Review: 30589 Go-Kart Racer Polybag

I found this, along with another polybag, in the Seasonal section at Target.  I'm not quite sure whether it's meant to be for Valentine's Day or Easter but these look to be the first two commonly available polybags for 2022.

Bag.  MSRP is $4.99, for a $0.13 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Minifig.

Parts.  Large Multi-Axle Plate, Wedge Plate w/Cutout, Air

Intake Brick, Slope, Mod. Plate w/Wing, Plates, Brackets,

Tires, Dishes, Cones, Rims, Rounded Plates, Studless

Slopes, Cheese Graters, and a Minifig Steering Wheel.

Build.  IO Frigate.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  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-).  This feels like a City version of the Friends go kart line from 2018, with all the bad implications of "City-ized".

Review: 30576 Holiday Tree Polybag

Back before Christmas, I found this in Target in the Seasonal section with other polybags I mentioned before.  I'm not sure if there are any left out there this long after the holidays.

Bag.  MSRP is $4.99, for a $0.07 Price per Piece.

Instructions

Parts.  Round Plates, Plates, Transparent Minifig Wands, Apollo

Studs, Propeller, Tile w/Pin, Large Jumpers, Rounded Plates, Leaves,

Transparent Round Plates, Cheese Slopes, Inverted Slopes, and Cones.

Build. Two 1 Hit pieces of Cover and a Station. 

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- 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+).  Sets like this are always a good bet and I think they're just going to keep getting better.

Polly Want a Baggy 10

A look at the upcoming polybags for 2022.   As usual all information was culled from Brickset.

30417: Garden Flower and Butterfly, Octagonal Bar Plate!  Pentagonal Wedge Slopes, Clip Plates, Heart Tiles, and a Hinge Plate among other good parts.

30432: The Turtle Beach, I see a handful of good parts and what looks to be a Station in a bag.

30433: Volvo Wheel Loader, another Technic polybag.  It'll probably have the same availability of the one from last year.  Yay.

30443: Spider-Man Bridge Battle, that drone looks like a good mini-Frame.

30455: Batmobile, I see a handful of those Minifig Posing Stands in Light Bley.  Car polybags are pretty useful too.

30495: AT-ST, that's a chicken walker Frame-in-a-Bag.

30562: Monkie Kid's Underwater Journey, possibly another Station in a bag.

30581: Tropical Parrot, I like all the colors and I see a couple of Ball Joints.

30582: Birthday Bear, I think there's a Frame-in-a-Bag here.  I'm looking forward to the chance to try.

30585: Fire Patrol Vehicle, a couple of over-molded parts and vehicle sets are pretty useful.

30587: Police Robot Unit, eight Inkwells along with a couple of other good parts.  Too bad the overall parts count looks low.

30592: Mini Thunder Raider, two mini Frames-in-a-Bag.

30593: Lloyd Suit Mech, another Frame-in-a-Bag.

I managed to review nine out of the eleven polybags I called out last year, let's hope the availability is as good this year.

Yearly Look Back, 2021 Edition

It's time once again for another look back at the year that was.

I'm down 6 posts from last year, maintaining my "at least three posts per week" average for the ninth year running. I'm now estimating cracking 2,000 posts sometime around the second week of May of 2024.

The Central MA gaming group continued to meet this year. We managed five games together, after the COVID-19 lockdowns were ended.

I managed 111 reviews this year; 2 Mega Bloks, 3 non-building block, 7 Petit Blocks, 8 Make-It Bricks, 8 Zuru Max. 18 clone bricks, and 65 Lego. That comes out to an average of 9.25 per month. Which is a decrease of 0.5 review per month from 2020.

I did 9 Terrain Workshop posts, and 2 Cool Real World Locations posts, along with hosting 4 guest posts.  I did 5 War College posts this year.  I'd like to do more, I really enjoy talking about MFZ in that way.

I'm now over 990K views, which is roughly another 80K views since last year.  I will probably break1 million views in February 0f 2022.  Thank you to everyone for the continued readership. My Flickr stream is over 4.6 million views which I must thank everyone for as well.

I didn't attend any conventions this year.  No PAX East, No PAX Unplugged, no Armour Con, no meeting great MoF0s, no seeing old friends, or playing really fun games.  Not cool, but better safe than sorry.  I'd like to try and revisit the idea of the "Game Store Grand Tour" for 2022, maybe do some work on rebuilding relationships for the community.

Stay safe, see you next year. :-)

Review: Block Tech US24-2031 Galactic Rangers

I purchased this at 5 Below right before Christmas after being alerted about other items that were available there.

Box. I paid $4.99 for 254 pieces, for a $0.02 Price per Piece.

Instructions

 

 Minifigs.  Those are some ugly faces.

Parts 1.  Transparent Round Plates, Round Plates, Half

Pins, Half Bushing, Bar Clips, and Levers & Bases.
 

Parts 2.  Transparent Cones, Plates, Tires, Octagonal Bar Plates, Wedge Plates, Brackets, Minifig Seat, Bricks, Macaroni Bricks, Angled Bar Plates, Slopes, Round Brick, Corrugated Round Bricks, and Inverted Slope w/Cutout.

Parts 3.  Axle Plates, Plates, Tiles, Double Sided Round Plate, Ball

Joint Plates, Transparent Tile, Technic Bricks, Bricks w/Studs on

Side, Technic Bricks w/Axle Hole, Tile w/Studs on Ends, Clip Claws,

Technic Connector, Axle w/Stop, Axle, Studless Slope, Double Slope

w/Invert, Transparent Curves w/Cutout, Bracket, Bar Plate, and Rims.

Parts 4.  Transparent Round Plates, Round Plates, Transparent Round

Tile, Round Tile, Inverted Tiles, Transparent Inverted Tile, Plates w/Angled Wings, Curved Slopes w/Wing End, Ball Joint Plates, Hinge Brick Top,

Double Slope, Large Cheese Slopes, Axle w/Stud on End, Double Jumpers, Round Bricks, New Headlight Bricks, Panels, and Hinge Brick Bottom.

Parts 5.  Plates, Inverted Studless Slopes, Tiles, Grille Tiles, Jumpers, 

Transparent Clip Plates, Transparent Inverted Tile, Transparent

Plates, Clip Plates, Lampholders, Round Tile, Padlocks, 

Cheese Slopes, 3L Pin, Lightsaber Hilts, Bars, and Barbs.

Build.  Two sets of two Frames (2Rd/1B/1G/1Y), two Stations, and one 1 Hit piece of Cover.



The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- 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+). Looks like a good starter kit for two people.

Review: 30580 Santa Claus Polybag

This was a "Free with Purchase" item at the Lego Store for December.  Seeing as it's after Christmas, I think it's about time I reviewed it.

Bag.  MSRP is $4.99, for a $0.07 Price per Piece.

Instructions

Parts.  Plates, Double Jumpers, Printed Round Tiles, Wedge Studless

Slopes, Round Plates, Brackets, Arches 1x3x2, Slope, Inverted Slopes,

Bricks, Studless Slopes, Curved Slope w/Cutout, Plates w/Pinhole,

Bar Plate, Clip Plate, Cheese Slopes, Half Pins, and 6L Bar w/Stop.

Build.  IO Frigate (2Ras+d8).

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- 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+).  A few useful parts but nothing in any quantity to get excited over.