Review: 41803 Extra Dots 8

Let's do something simple for a Friday.  I purchased this at my local Lego store.  This is part of the eighth Series of the Dots line.

Bag.  I paid $3.99 for a $0.04 Price per Piece.

Parts.  First row is Printed Tiles. Second through seventh is Quarter Circle Tiles

 (Black, Pink, and Medium Azure).  Eight and nine are a Pink over-molded Star

 Round Tile.  Ten and eleven are Trans-Purple Round Tiles. Twelfth is Trans-

Clear Sparkle Round Tiles.  Thirteenth is Pearlescent Gemstones.  Fourteen

and Fifteen are Translucent Mother-of-Pearl(?) Quarter Circle Tiles.

 

Build.  None, as these are all accent parts.

The Questions:
Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  No. (-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: +10 (A-).  This feels like a throwback to Series 1 and Series 3 with some of the contents of this set.  It's similar to Series 6 in terms of number of different pieces.

Review: 40605 Lunar New Year VIP Add On Polybag

This is a "Free with Purchase" giveaway for a $50 expenditure for VIP patrons in January at the Lego store.

Bag.  MSRP is $9.99, for a $0.08 Price per Piece.

Instructions.  From the looks of it, this is more a suggestion booklet.

Parts 1.  21L String w/End Studs, Round Plates, 3x3 Double Curved

Slopes, Pumpkins, Round Plates w/3 Leaves, Candlesticks, Clip Bar

Holders, Plates, Inverted Arches, Arches, Crown/Eggshell, Lattice

Fences, Minifig Ski Beanies, Bricks, Minifig Conical Hats, Minifig

Seats, Minifig Sword Hilts, Technic Ball Joints, Minifig Turkey

Body, Printed Tiles, Minifig Rabbits, and Round Bricks w/3 Leaves.

Parts 2.  Dishes, Round Plates, Ingots, Printed Tiles, Round Flower

 Plates, Printed Round Tiles, Technic Pin Connectors, Cones, Chains 

w/Tassel, Clip Tiles, Minifig Drumsticks, Minifig Chopsticks, Minifig 

Cups, Minifig Scarves, Round Plates w/3 Leaves, and Minifig Teapot.

  

 

Build.  Two stations a 2 Hit piece of Cover, and a 1 Hit piece of Cover.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Station.  (+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+).  Like the other VIP sets, it's good as a supplement not as a core set.

Review: 30581 Tropical Parrot Polybag

This polybag comes from the 2022 releases.  I finally tracked one down after six months of staring at an empty bin on a store shelf.

Bag.  MSRP is $4.00, for a $0.06 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Parts.  Round Plate, Plates, Wedge Plates, 3x2x1.3 Bracket, 2x3 Rounded Plate, Inverted Slopes, Curved Slopes, Round Brick, Ball Joint Plates, Double Clip Plate, Studless Slope, Turntable Base, Printed Round Tiles, Turntable Top, Jumpers, Wedge Studless Slopes, Pin Ball Joints, Bar Plates, Rounded Plate, Large Cheese Slopes, Quarter Circle Tiles, Bricks w/Studs on Side, and Plant Leaves.  There is also a 1x2 Brick that somehow got stuck inside the package and missed when I dumped them out for sorting.

Build.  Frame and Station.  If I tried a little harder I could have

made a 2 Hit piece of Cover from the remaining pieces.

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+).  I like it but I feel like it could be better.

Review: 30503 Build Your Own Animals Polybag

This was a "Free with Purchase" item over the Summer in my local Lego store.  I have a bunch and this is basically a filler post.  :-)

Bag.  MSRP -- if we use the current polybag pricing -- is $4.99, for a $0.31 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Parts.  Bricks, Slopes, Studless Curved Brick, Printed Brick, and Plates.

Build.  Megafauna and Station/Cover.  Each

can take 1 Hit before being destroyed.

  

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-).  Limited availability, not many parts, and not a great selection of parts.

Review: 43199 Frozen Elsa's Castle Courtyard

I picked this up on Clearance recently from Walmart.  I've always liked the colors in the set and I've been interested in that Minidoll Dress/Diamond piece ever since I first saw it.  So I figured, what the hell let's take a look at the set.

Box.  MSRP is $9.99, for a $0.19 Price per Piece.

I paid $7.00 for a $0.13 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Minifig.

Parts 1.  Loose in box.  Satin Trans-Light Blue Windscreen 6x4 x1.3 Pointed, 

Door Frame 1x6x7 Rounded Pillars w/Top Arch & Notches, and Wedge Plate.

Parts 2.  Bricks, Translucent Snowflake, Translucent Octagonal Rock Bottom, Slopes,

Translucent Dish, Plates, Large Jumper, Jumpers, Bricks w/ Clip, Brick w/Studs on

Side, Bricks w/Bar Handle, Inverted Slopes, Translucent Bricks, Pentagonal Tiles,

Translucent Jewels, Translucent Pyramids, Translucent Bar, Translucent 5 Point Crystal,

Translucent Minifig Head, 1.5x1.5x0.6 Dome Top, and Printed Technic Ball Joint.

Build.  Frame and 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?  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?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +5 (B+).  It has some useful parts and I love the colors but that price really kills any utility this set might have had.

Polly Want A Baggy 11

It's time once again for our yearly look at the upcoming polybag releases.  As usual all information was culled from Brickset.

30633: Skate Ramp  I see a Tap, Inkwell, Clip Bricks and other useful parts.

30634: Friendship Flowers  This resembles past Friends flower polybags with a possible increase in the number of colors used.

30639: Dog Park and Scooter  The main build may be lackluster but, I see a functional 1 Hit tree in that polybag.

30649: Ice Dragon Creature  I think this will be the "must have" polybag for the MFZ community in 2023.  That's a "Frame-In-A-Bag" in two different ways.

30655: Forklift with Pallet  Technic polybag, third year running.  The one from 2022 was somewhat easy to procure, let's see about this one.

30656: Monkey King Marketplace  A handful of useful bits and possibly some sort of Terrain build.

Not sure if it's because it's very early in the year or because Lego is cracking down on leaks but, there's not much to this list so far.

Yearly Look Back, 2022 Edition

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

The Central MA gaming group continued to meet this year.  We managed eight games together, which is an improvement over 2021.  I managed to break through the 70 games played barrier this year.

I'm down 8 posts from last year but, still maintaining my "at least three posts per week" average for the tenth year running.  I'm now estimating cracking 2,000 posts sometime around the last week of May of 2024.

I managed 85 reviews this year; 1 Book, 3 Mega Bloks, 3 Zuru Max, 10 non-building block, 11 Clone, 18 Make-It Bricks, and 39 Lego.  That comes out to an average of 7.1 per month.  Which is a decrease of 2.15 review per month from 2021 -- which I'm okay with as I feel like I need to pivot away from being review heavy.

I did 5 War College and 20 Terrain Workshop posts this year.  Which is a major increase in Terrain Workshops.  I'm hoping to do more of both, I really enjoy talking about MFZ in that way.

I'm now over 1M views, which is roughly another 66K views since last year.  I have no idea when I'll break 2 million. Thank you to everyone for the continued readership.  My Flickr stream is over 5.1 million views which I must thank everyone for as well.

I managed to attend PAX Unplugged this year on pretty short notice.  It was great seeing people I had shared a gaming table with back in 2019, it was also great meeting all the new people that were enthusiastic about MFZ.  It was trippy attending with friends from home this time -- apart from my booth-mates, that is.  I'm looking forwards to attending more conventions in 2023, and I'm really looking forwards to PAX Unplugged 2023 as I feel like we were on the cusp of multiple MFZ games happening at once this time around.

Keep on gaming and I'll see you next year. :-)