Purity: Mega Bloks DYF13 Pokemon Gyarados Review

Let's finish out Mega Bloks review week with another licensed set from another different line.

Box.  MSRP is $29.99 for a Price per Piece of $0.09.

Instructions.

Parts 1.  A couple of plates.

Parts 2.  Lots of Pale Yellow.
Some cool Double Sided
Plates and Brackets here.

Parts 3.  T Plates, Double Sided
Plate, and the Trans-Light Blue
Plate are neat.

Parts 4.  Plenty of Slopes, Wedge Plates, and Macaroni Plates.

Parts 5.  The "Fire" pieces are neat,
as are the Clip Brick and Bar Plate.

Parts 6.  Trans-Light Blue Bar Plates!

Parts 7.  Inverted Tile Clips!

Parts 8.  Nice Trans-Blue pieces here.




Parts 9.  Antenna.

Parts 10.  Interesting Ball Joints and printed pieces here.

Parts 11.  The 2x2 Round Plate in the top left corner is double sided.

Parts 12.  More Bar and Connector pieces.

Build.  I'm calling this "Stomper".

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 licensed set with the top score, nice.

Purity: Mega Bloks DXD72 Destiny EV-41 Racing Sparrow Review

We're at the middle of the Mega Bloks review week and let's try another licensed set from a different line.

Box.  MSRP is $15.99 for a Price per Piece of $0.16.

Instructions.

Minifig 1.

Minifig 2.  This thing is huge.

Size Comparison.  Yeah, you could field this Minifig next to Chubs.

Parts 1.  I like those Turquoise pieces.  The Pin/Bar combo piece is really nice.  There's also a 1x1-1x1 Bracket

Parts 2.  More Turquoise parts.  There's also a couple of Corner Bricks too.  Honestly, everything in this picture looks useful.

Build.  An IO frigate.  It has five hardpoints for Attachments.

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+).  Not a bad score, but it needs a lot more parts to be better.

Purity: DXW44 Mega Construx Dinotrux Ty Rux Tail Smash Review

Such a long name for a small set.  Let's start the week with a Mega Bloks review that calls back to a review I did last week.

Box.  MSRP is $9.99 for a Price per Piece of $0.27.  These sets are being marked down right now so you can find them for under MSRP.

Instructions.

Parts 1.  Just some tracks.

Parts 2.  The printed Eye Bricks attach to the head piece on the left.

Parts 3.  More Duplo-scale bricks here.

Parts 4.  These are the rest of the System-scale bricks in the set.

Build.  I included the Classic and the Chub to show you just how big this set is.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away? Yes.  But it's closer to Terrain than a playable unit.  (0)
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: -10 (C+).  This set may be more useful as the core for terrain pieces.

Review: 30496 Star Wars U-Wing Fighter Polybag

Let's finish out the week with the last Barnes & Noble polybag.  Although, I've recently found this at Walmart as well.

Bag.  MSRP is $3.95 which is a Price per Piece of $0.07.

Instructions.

Parts.  A few Wedge Plates, Plates, and Tiles.  Some Slopes, plenty of Apollo Studs -- even Trans-Orange ones -- Flick Missiles, Cones, Click Hinge Plates, Grille Tiles, a Jumper, and 1x2 Modified Plates w/Pin Hole round out the selection.

Build. Once more, Dark Cloud Blogs has already done a review for the set build and I'm trying something different.

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+). Another really good starship set.

Review: 30449 Guardians of the Galaxy Milano Polybag

This was a "free" giveaway at the Lego store for part of the month of May.

Bag.  MSRP is $4.99 which is a Price per Piece of $0.08.

Instructions.

Parts 1.  Plenty of Wedge Plates,   Some Slopes, Plates, and a 2x2 Brick.  A couple of Brackets, some 1x2 Female Ball Joints w/Cup on End, and the elusive Compact Technic Steering Arm w/3 Ball Joints.

Parts 2.  Some Slopes, Hinge Bricks, Plates, Tiles, Technic Bits, and a Dish.

Build.  Once again, since Dark Cloud Blogs already built the set,
I'm trying for a Frame instead.  We've got a quad walker with 2Rd/2B.

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+).  Another really good set.  Let's hope it comes back on the market at some point in the future.

Review: 30277 Star Wars First Order Star Destroyer Polybag

Here's a current polybag that can be found at Toys'R'Us.

Bag.  MSRP is $3.99 which is a Price per Piece of $0.07.

Instructions.

Parts.  Plenty of Wedge Plates, regular Plates, a Jumper, a Lampholder, some Slopes, Boat Bumpers, Grille Tiles, Tiles, and Modified Plates 2x2x2/3 w/2 Studs on Side.

Build.  Since Dark Cloud Blogs has already built the set,

I figured I'd try and build a mech.

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+).  This is a good set for a start in Intercept Orbit, or otherwise.

Review: 30322 Duplo Wildlife Polybag

I picked this one up at Toys'R'Us.  This set wouldn't normally be something I would review but I have a reason you'll see at the end.

Bag.  MSRP is $3.99 which is a Price per Piece of $1.00.

Instructions.

Minifig.  :-)

Parts.  Three Bricks.

Build.  Here's the reason I bought this set.  as you can see in the picture on the left, System Bricks can attach to the studs on Duplo Bricks.  This gives us a base to build pieces of Terrain or Cover using a lesser amount of pieces.  The hill in the picture on the right will take 1 Hit before being reduced under the Height Limit for Cover and 3 Hits before being destroyed.

The Questions:
Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  No.  (-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: -15 (C).  Scoring this set isn't really fair.  This review was done more as a way to inform people of the compatibility between System and Duplo Bricks.

Review: 30351 Police Helicopter Polybag

A while back a set of polybags was released through Barnes & Noble.  Here's a review of one of them.

Bag.  MSRP is $3.95 which is a Price per Piece of $0.09.

Instructions.

Minifig.  Look closely, that's a female face.


Parts.  Two White Taps, a Minifig Space Camera, some Slopes, plenty of Plates, a couple of 1x1 Clip Bricks, 1x2 Bricks w/Studs on 1 Side, and a Bar Plate (open ends).  A nice little selection.

Build.  Okay, I copped out and built another 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?  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?  No.  (-5)
Score: +10 (A-).  Not a bad score, more parts would have helped.