Flying Meat & Booze Ahead[edit | edit source]

This set quickly became a must-have for me as soon as the first images of The LEGO Movie were released. So naturally it was also the first I picked up from this new line and I was not disappointed.

The set comes with 473 pieces and four unique minifigures (I love all of them, but especially Bob).

It consists of three separate builds: a western plane, a flying kebab stand, and a so-called Micro Manager–one of Lord Business’ evil machines. Like most vehicles from the theme the ones in this set look like quite crazy and as if they were built from something else, but unlike the Ice Cream Machine (70804), the Trash Chomper (70805), the Castle Cavalry (70806) and the Flying Flusher (70811) this set does not contain additional instructions to built what those vehicles could have previously been.

The box contains four bags and two instruction manuals: the first one for the Micro Manager and the flying kebab stand (bag 1+2), the second for the western plane (bag 3+4). Let’s start directly with the highlight, the plane.

The double-decker is a heavily armed flying saloon, with a wing-mounted canon on each side, machine guns next to the engine and dynamite dropping treasure chests in the back.

It is a lot of fun to build, even though I was expecting the wings to be foldable, but I guess that would have made them even more fragile than they anyway are.

In the body of the plane there is space for two minifigures. Judging by the studs, Rootbeer Belle is piloting the plane while Sudds Backwash is playing the piano in the back. For the engine–just like the whole set–a lot of interesting pieces were used, including two revolvers.

I read a few complaints online, that the slightly older revolvers were chosen over the new, more detailed ones from the Lone Rangers sets. To me it makes sense since this is not a licensed theme that is about recreating as much detail as possible, but a LEGO theme that has LEGO and its variety as a topic, so of course pieces that are easier to alienate from their original purpose were chosen. Anyway. The back fin has some interesting stickers (yes, there are many of them and almost no printed pieces) one of which has a list of names that belong to Phil Lord (director), Christopher Miller (director), Chris McKay (animation director, editor), Grant Freckelton (production designer).

The next part I built was the flying kebab stand. It is a very simple built using a large plate for the start and then basically just attaching stuff to it. But in the end it looks really funny. Its main features are the kebab flick missiles an the rotating kebab itself. it is mainly decorated with stickers as well (five to be exact) except for some small displays. While the body is mostly white, the ship has a lot of red and yellow stripes as decor which–in my habit of building in all spare pieces–I continued even for the operating handles in the front.

Finally there is the micromanager. These robots appear in eight of the 17 sets and are always altered, despite their main body being a black cube. The one in this set has two strong legs and two front facing clutches that drive the fear into Exuctive Ellen’s face (she is the only figure in this set to have a double-sided head piece).

Since one of the main lessons from the movie seems to be to always use your creativity, I also went ahead and build what the vehicles could have originally been.

The plane I turned into a saloon with swing doors, a bar with a decorated large back wall where Belle can bartend and larger piano than Sudds had in the plane and for more comfort he also got a stool. Kebab Bob”s stand was less easy since there were very limited options for the wheels and their suspension, but Bob seems to be happy with the result as long as you “Remember to TIP!” as it says on his menu.

So all I have left to say is, that if you have the chance I recommend you get this set!

It is a really fun build, no matter if you stick to the instruction or go as crazy as the designers seem to have done.
It has great play features and a large amount of details.
It has beautiful, unique minifigures that will work great in other environments too.

There is really not a single negative aspect I could think of that makes this not a outstandingly great set.

Minifigures	5 / 5
Pieces	5 / 5
Building Experience	4½ / 5
Playability	4 / 5
Price	4½ / 5
Overall	5 / 5

(This review as first publish on my tumblr)