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17 May 2016

Eggs, balloons and buns

Posted by Admin
After hating the initial images, I was pleasantly surprised to see some LEGO® Angry Birds sets 'in the brick' recently... full of craziness, fun colours and those cute piggies left me squealing with delight. Now, our angry mummy bird (too many nappies to change now she has twins), Elspeth De Montes, has written a review revealing some of the most interesting new parts included in this range.

It is time for another one of my New Elementary reviews and this time I turn my eyes to 75824 Pig City Teardown. Last time, when reviewing 10247 Ferris Wheel, I had to apologise for not actually building the set but this time I can proudly say “here’s one I prepared earlier…” and show off my own review over on The Brothers Brick. I'll link to the review at the end as I want to show you all the lovely details first.

Pig City Teardown is the mid-priced set of the range, with 386 parts and priced £39.99/US$39.99. The Angry Birds sets are all colourful and enticing for the ‘recommended’ age range, between 6-12 or 8-14 as the set size increases. For those of us who are perhaps slightly older than this, fear not…there are a host of new moulds, re-colours and great new printed tiles that will also bring great joy.

Parts

There are 12 to discuss: the first six elements in the list are new elements or new printed elements while the final six are re-colours of known elements.


White:
  • Egg with Hole on Top (Element ID 6143595 | Design ID 24926)
  • Brick, Round 2x2 Dome Bottom with Studs (6151968 |  24947)
Bright Red [TLG]/Red [BL]:
  • Brick, Round 2x2 Dome Bottom with Studs (6143596 |  24947)
Brick Yellow [TLG]/ Tan [BL]:
  • Hotdog Bun (6147214 | 25386)
Medium Nougat [TLG]/ Medium Dark Flesh [BL]:
  • Tile 1x4 with Wood Grain and 3 Silver Nails Pattern (6151654 | 2431)
  • Tile 2x2 with ‘TNT’ pattern (6149979 | 3068)
  • Container, Barrel Half Large (6143217 | 4424)
  • Brick 2X4 (6135191 | 3001) 
Medium Azur [TLG]/Medium Azure [BL]:
  • Brick 1X1X3 (6149781 | 14716)
  • Flat Tile 2X2, Round (6145255 | 14769)
  • Frame 1X2X2 (6149782 | 60592)
Warm Gold [TLG]/Pearl Gold [BL]:
  • Plate round 1X1 W. through hole ‘Apollo stud’ (6141499 | 85861)
In addition to the 12 new elements there are four new figures in this set which only have moveable arms. Pictured from left to right: Piggy 3 (BL ID ang011), Piggy 2 (BL ID ang010), Stella (BL ID ang009) and Red (BL ID ang008).

The Egg

The first new element that is a completely new mould is the egg. This is quite exciting; foodstuff is always of interest to AFOLs and with Easter, it has a seasonal aspect. Of course it will also be great for Chicken Suit Guy! There are five eggs supplied and they are beautifully shaped, with a small 1.85mm hole at the top that fits the stem of plant perfectly and an anti-stud hole at the base with one brick length of space inside for a rod to be inserted as shown.

Interestingly, when upturned and attached to a plant stem, the eggs take on a whole new life as a bunch of tulips (aka an Eggplant).


Balloon base

The new balloon base is supplied in both red and white in this set and also appears in Bright Yellow [TLG]/Yellow [BL] and Medium Lilac [TLG]/Dark Purple [BL] within other sets in the Angry Birds theme. At first look, it seems quite decadent that we have another option for balloon bases as we were already using other 2x2 dome bricks. The design of this new inverted dome is different as it has steeper sides (like an egg top) and similar studs to the 'boat stud’.


There have been a variety of solutions used previously to create a balloon but the new balloon base (shown above left) is clearly the optimal shape now. All four options shown above use the Brick, Round 2x2 Dome Top - Hollow Stud with Bottom Axle Holder (Design ID 553) as a top, but for the bases the pieces used are:
  1. Brick, Round 2 x 2 Dome Bottom with Studs ‘balloon base’ (Design ID 24947)
  2. Brick, Round 2 x 2 Dome Bottom (15395)
  3. A second Brick, Round 2 x 2 Dome Top connected at 180° using an axle
  4. Plate, Round 2 x 2 with Axle Hole (4032) and Brick, Round 2 x 2 Dome Bottom (15395). A similar alternative would be to use the slightly taller Brick, Round 2x2x1 2/3 Dome Top (30151).
The top side of the part allows both 3.18mm bars to be inserted into both the stud holes and also through the central gap. In addition, the central gap also allows a 1x1 round brick, stud or similar to be placed.




One of the initial thoughts that crossed my mind with the new ‘balloon base’ was using the part to create a LEGO Diabolo, as the shape seemed perfect.


Hot Dog Bun

Quite rightly there was a lot of excitement when the new hot dog bun element was noted as the first shots of this set were released. The bun has an anti-stud on the bottom to allow it to be held in the hand of a minifigure or placed on a stud.


There is a central clutch point that securely holds any 3.18mm bar. (below left to right: Paint roller, skeleton arm, nozzle, 3L bar, bar)


New Printed tiles

As a fan of lots of different printed parts (as opposed to stickers) I do love the two new printed tiles included with this set. The TNT tile fits onto a 2x2 brick to make a box of explosives for one of the target areas in the build. It’s a great little printed tile with a host of uses in MOCs especially Western, cartoon-like builds and minifigure-scale vignettes.


The 1x4 wood tile is used in the rickety old bridge and is another tile that I see plenty of future uses for. Anything from crates, furniture, boarded up windows, crime scenes, post-apocalyptic MOCs and so on.

There have been several printed wood tiles before, as shown below from left to right:
  1. the new Medium Dark Flesh 1x4 wood tile with 3 nails 
  2. Reddish Brown Tile 1x4 with Wood Grain and 4 Nails Pattern,
  3. Tan 1x4 wood tile (from Carpenter, CMF Series 13)
  4. Yellow Tile 1x6 with Wood Grain Pattern (from set 6584) 
  5. Tan Tile 1 x 6 with Wood Grain Pattern (from Sets 4756 and 7417)
I have not included any stickered tiles in this list but there are a lot of wood-effect ones out there, should you find stickers acceptable.

Elements new in Medium Dark Flesh

Medium Dark Flesh 2x4 bricks finally make their debut in sets in 2016, in this set and four others at time of writing. Collectors who like to have one of each colour of 2x4 brick will rejoice as previously these bricks had been hard to find - probably only available as 'Q' parts - and were hence expensive on the secondary market. The average price on BrickLink over the last 6 months was a whopping £1.37 with a single brick bought in January 2016 for £5.73!

The large half barrel also appears for the first time in Medium Dark Flesh in this set. This barrel is also known as ‘Fabuland Tub’ and has a previous Design ID 64951 when it appeared in 37 different sets (at least) from 2009 -2015. It has 4 studs inside on bottom in a 2x2 arrangement and an axle hole in the bottom.

Elements new in Medium Azure

I find the Brick 1x1x3 interesting as it could easily be formed by stacking three 1x1 bricks. Admittedly it allows a tidy stack without having to line up 1x1 bricks but other than this, there is no real benefit to this part in a set. In this set, the 1x1x3 bricks form the supporting walls of the ‘Egg Home’ structure.

2x2 round tiles are a lovely element to now get in my favourite LEGO colour. The alteration to 2x2 round tiles with the central anti-stud connection rather than the previous arrangement is a definite improvement in my opinion. One of the tiles receives a sticker in this set to form a vent on the side of the Egg House (at least I think this is what it is meant to be?) I have to admit that I applied the sticker to build the set for my review and then immediately removed it - naughty me!

The final new element in this colour are three 1x2x2 window frames. These definitely shout out 'beach hut' to me... perhaps a luxurious beach house for those with more expensive tastes. Interestingly, the windows do not come with their glass in this set. Perhaps having glass in a set where the aim is to catapult birds at targets was deemed to be setting a bad example to children…do not catapult birds at glass windows!

Elements new in Pearl Gold

Last but not least is the Apollo stud (1x1 round plate with a hole) in Pearl Gold. The set uses two and a spare was supplied. You can read a bit about the history of this piece in this early New Elementary post. Here are all the colours of Apollo stud now available:


The completed set 

Building this was a fun activity for the six-year-old son of one of my friends. As an AFOL and a ‘parts monkey’, I was particularly pleased with the selection of new parts supplied with this set. I have to admit that it has been deconstructed and the parts are now being utilised for other creations. For more details on the build, check out my review over on The Brothers Brick.





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12 comments:

  1. The size and shape of the eggs make them look almost like ostrich eggs on minifig scale...

    /Håkan

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    Replies
    1. A white balloon set at 180 degrees could be a dinosaur egg!

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    2. Between those and the dragon eggs in Elves sets, it's a big year for eggs!

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  2. Love this part review! The part where you tried out the hot dog bun on other parts was my favorite. Hot dog bun? How about hot dog GUN.

    Personally, I like having the 1x1x3 brick. It's sort of midway between the regular 1x1 and the 1x1x5 column, and its size makes it very good for use with windows or arches.

    The Warm Gold "Apollo stud" is definitely a great recolor, and will surely be very useful for themes I enjoy like Ninjago and Elves that make great use of Warm Gold for weapons, accessories, and other detailing.

    I also found it interesting that you actually reviewed this set for two separate sites—a normal set review on Brothers Brick and a part review here. Is that something that will be able to be done on this site going forward? I understand that it's sometimes hard to cover all the interesting parts in sets AND the sets themselves in one review, so I can appreciate this sort of split review (and prefer it to reviews that focus solely on the parts and omit any sort of coverage of the final sets, which I feel is sort of a disservice to the designers). On the other hand, sometimes the sets themselves serve as great examples of ways that their new parts and recolors can be used, making both types of coverage relevant for this site. I suppose the best choice would depend largely on what sort of set is being reviewed!

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    Replies
    1. was that a hot dog gun pun?
      Great summary of the new parts Elspeth

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    2. Thanks Andrew, interesting points!

      "Is that something that will be able to be done on this site going forward?" It was more through happenstance than intention! Elspeth simply let me know she had reviewed the set for TBB and wanted to write a proper parts review too. I presume LCE are fine with this, if anything it is better use of their resources :D At times I have also used the same sets for New E as well as Bricks magazine reviews.

      "prefer it to reviews that focus solely on the parts and omit any sort of coverage of the final sets..." Yes, many would agree and indeed there have even been angry comments in the past. I see New E as being part of a community of LEGO fan sites who all provide information on exactly the same products, so it is more about complementing one another rather than New E reviews being 'all things to all people'. I think if we talk about a 'disservice' to set designers we also need to think if we are doing a disservice to the instruction designers and graphic designers and everyone else who goes to making the product, therefore that aspect does not concern me as greatly. If anyone, the part designers are the TLG heroes of New E and they don't get enough respect elsewhere! ;D
      The other factor is that these days I am very slow getting reviews online (as you've experienced yourself! Sorry) So usually many excellent and thorough reviews exist already and it is old news to most readers. This doesn't mean it's worthless for New E to provide set reviews, it's more about using the time and skills of each contributor wisely. Yours and Scott's reviews, for example, bring a level of insight and thoroughness to the subject that is rare. I'm honoured to feature them here and suspect readers would be happy to read them no matter how old the products have become :D

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    3. I thought the hot dog gun looked a bit like a handgun with 'silencer' :-)

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  3. The Apollo stud is also available in trans-dark orange in a couple of sets, starting at least before Xmas 2015 (I got a friend's kid a couple in the city fire starter set).

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    Replies
    1. nat, apologies for my error. You are correct, the trans orange apollo studs were in the 2016 City theme Fire sets...oops!

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    2. I didn't know that either! Droool.

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    3. @Elspeth De Montes
      41176: The Secret Market Place also contains a trans-orange apollo stud.

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    4. Yes I noticed when I went back to check on my error! I have that set so it's a bit naughty of me to have missed that colour out. I hope Tim forgives me!

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