The three new LEGO Movie sets are now available from brand stores and shop.LEGO.com. DrDave and Kempo reviewed Emmet's Mech and Police Drop-ship last week. Now it's my turn to take a look at the third, perhaps the most anticipated set of the year among discerning AFOLs: 70816 Benny's Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP!, to give it its full name.
The 'classic space' era, 1978-1986, was a time when many of today's AFOLs were kids so the original sets hold a special place in many people's hearts including, it seems, the writers of The LEGO Movie who gave a classic space minifig Benny and his spaceship star billing in the film.
Given the number of pictures I took, I'll split the review over two parts. I'll cover the box, parts and minifigs in the first, then the construction and completed model in the second.
BoxThe almost square box looks fantastic and I fail to see how anyone picking it up would not want to buy it immediately!
The back, as usual, highlights the playability of the set.
The characters included in the set are illustrated on the top of the box: Robo Emmet, Astro Kitty, Benny, Space Wyldstyle and Robo Pilot.
The instructions are in split over two books which, along with this extensive sticker sheet, are packed in a bag with cardboard to prevent creasing. Thankfully the stickers are printed on clear film so are likely to be less susceptible to peeling over time.
PartsLEGO has just added the inventory to LEGO.com so the full parts list can be seen here. Apart from the minifig parts, there are few new parts, although there are plenty of 'nearly-new' and parts in new colours.
The 2x2 corner tile is new this year. There are two grey ones in this set.
The trans-yellow windshield is undoubtedly the most significant new part, and the one that'll be most welcomed by classic space MOCers. It's a yellow version of that used in last year's UCS X-Wing.
Although not new or particularly rare, I was pleased to see that many of the parts commonly seen in classic space sets which were new at the time are used in this set:
MinifigsBenny, complete with 'broken' helmet and faded classic space logo, is obviously the star of the set although he's not unique to it: he first appeared in Metal Beard's Sea Cow.
Wyldstyle is sporting a funky hoodie featuring the classic space logo.
The blue hoodie piece is new for this set, so is now made in black and blue. It's a cool piece: I hope it makes an appearance in non TLM sets in the future.
Emmet is sporting his 'thinly-disguised as a robot' look. Otherwise he's identical to other incarnations.
The 'piece of resistance' is metallic silver. Presumably that's accurate, I can't remember.
The robo pilot has a nicely detailed torso print and I like that he has a red visor like the first space police minifigs.
Unfortunately he topples over when holding his blaster...
Unikitty looks delightful in her classic space garb, doesn't she! As you'd expect, her face and body are printed.
That makes it five incarnations of Unikitty now: the original pink one in 70803 Cloud Cuckoo Palace, Bizniz kitty in 70809 Lord Business' Evil Lair, Queasy kitty in 70810 Metal Beard's Sea Cow, Angry kitty in 70814 Emmet's Construct-o-Mech and now this Astro Kitty.
Stay tuned for part two of the review where I'll look at construction of the ship.
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