Review: 71483 The Never Witch's Nightmare Creatures
Posted by benbacardi,One of the recent slate of LEGO DREAMZzz sets released this year is 71483 The Never Witch's Nightmare Creatures, focusing on the show's main protagonist Mateo and his battle against the Never Witch and the creatures she's conjured up from his nightmares.
It's one of the mid-sized sets in the range, with just shy of 500 parts, and includes no fewer than five minifigures, a decent amount for a set of this size. Builders can choose between three main Nightmare Creatures to assemble—a raven, a wolf, and a robot-style figure. With Mateo the lone hero facing four antagonists and their terrifying nightmare creatures, will he manage to save the childrens memories from the Never Witch's evil clutches?
Summary
71483 The Never Witch's Nightmare Creatures, 457 pieces.
£39.99 / $44.99 / €44.99 | 8.8p/9.8c/9.8c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A decent set with a great colour scheme and a couple of good options for the main build.
- Excellent minifigures
- Great wolf and raven builds
- Fun play story
- Articulation can be a little awkward
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Minifigures
The set includes five minifigures. Mateo is our sole protagonist, joined by his nightmare doppelganger, Madteo. As you'd expect, they're both dressed in similar attire, with similar hair and facial markings. Madteo, however, is clearly on the dark side! Mateo's blue puffer gilet is contrasted with a grey version worn by his nemesis, and his brown hair with green and red highlights is replaced by a black and pink equivalent. Underneath, Mateo's torso is printed with a picture of Z-Blob, a creation of Mateo's from his comic books, beneath a blue flannel vest. The nightmare version is black, purple, and grey. Both are excellently detailed on the torso and the legs.
Both characters feature dual expressions, with large grins on one side, and a menacing sneer for Madteo and a smirk for Mateo on the other. They're also both equipped with weapons—Mateo has turned Z-Blob into a sword, and Madteo is wielding a long spear topped with a jewel.
The rear of the torsos are also printed with the flannel jacket pattern, but this is hidden beneath the gilet the characters wear.
Rounding out the enemies, and giving the nightmare characters a distinct advantage over poor Mateo, are two more nightmare doppelgangers and the Never Witch herself. Dogan, the nightmare equivalent of Logan, has bright pink skin, and a fierce grin showing yellow teeth. Doey, Zoey's doppelganger, has bright white skin, and a single pink hand. Their outfits are just as detailed as Mateo/Madteo, in the usual nightmare colours of black with pink and purple highlights.
Lastly, the Never Witch stands head and shoulders above the others, on her smoky ghostly pedestal, a fantastic marbled mould of trans pink and black. Her torso and leg printing are similar to the others, but she stands out with an impressive dual-moulded crown and hairpiece.
All three figures also sport dual expressions, with suitably aggressive sneers from the dopplegangers and a confident smirk from the Never Witch. It seems Mateo has his work cut out!
Along with Mateo's sword and Madteo's spear, Dogan wields a hammer and Doey a bow (although not one with arrows that can be fired, as in other sets where Zoey appears). The Never Witch is holding a jewel-tipped sceptre, atop of which is fixed a stolen memory encased in a glass dome—this one depicting a castle in the clouds.
The Build
The first model that's built as part of the set is a small ancillary build of a cauldron beside a pile of rocks and a black-trunked tree. The "cauldron of nightmares" sits atop some bright green flames, and is used by the Never Witch to turn the children's memories (represented by the tiles hanging in the tree, stolen by the raven) into nightmares, even creating the evil doppelgangers themselves. The memory tiles are excellent, and here we have three, depicting a video game, piles of cakes and sweets, and a house in the woods.
As with the other DREAMZzz sets, 71483 The Never Witch's Nightmare Creatures provides three options for the main build, each of which is one of the Never Witch's creatures of nightmares. Each revolves around a small central core, that is built before choosing your direction. In this case, it's another cauldron, but this time with four spider-like legs.
Strangely, each of the three builds immediately has you detach the legs, turn them upside down, and fold them in against the cauldron. I don't know who would play with this tiny model by itself before building one of the others, so it seems a little superfluous to add the legs as above and immediately change them.
The Raven
The first option is a large raven, with an ornate seat on its back for one of the Never Witch's minions to sit on. The colour scheme, as with all the builds, is an excellent black, pink, and purple, with a few sickly green highlights. The raven has an articulated neck, wings, and tail, and the legs can be adjusted both where they meet the body and at the ankles. There's only really one pose where the raven stands upright by itself, and that also requires using the tail on the ground as a third support.
Each foot has three yellowish green talons that can also be positioned, as well as an additional one at the leading edge of the wings, which are lined with adjustable feathers. A large trans-pink dual-moulded flame piece is used for the entirety of the tail. It would have been nice to see some more feathering here, as the tail looks somewhat small compared to the rest of the model.
Stickers are used to decorate the top of the head and feet, but the eyes are printed 1x1 cheese slopes—blue on one side, green on the other.
With a minfigure sat in the saddle, there are two arms topped with jewels that are presumably used to control the raven's flight. The saddle can also be removed if you wish to play with the creature by itself.
DoomBlob
The second nightmare creature is not a traditional animal like the other two, but instead a large articulated figure called DoomBlob, the nightmare doppleganger of Z-Blob, Mateo's comic creation. The cauldron is once again used as the creature's chest, with arms attached to the articulated joints on either side. A tall black 2x2 dome is printed with a pair of slanted evil pink-edged white eyes, and can be rotated.
Large curved 2x2 macaroni pieces are used for both the arms and legs, giving the figure a rather odd bandy-kneed stance. A large flaming sword is grasped in one of its clawed hands, and DoomBlob has a surprising degree of articulation, though I never find it easy to pose these figures in the exact position I'd like.
A pair of wings are attached to the figure's back, using the same pink and purple pieces as the raven for features in a very similar manner. Ball joints afford a good degree of articulation for the wings too, as well as at the ankles.
DoomBlob is the only model of the three that's accompanied by a sidekick, a small black wolf. The wolf's head has been impressively constructed from very few pieces creating a good representation of a canine's fierce look. The body is hinged at the waist, and the tail is attached with a ball joint, but there's no articulation in the legs and they were rather prone to fall off as my children played with the model.
The Wolf
The final model is a large-scale wolf, once again with a saddle on its back for one of the nightmare minions, although of quite a different style. The raven's printed eyes are repurposed for the wolf, and the head is cleverly constructed to bear a thin sliver of white teeth in its jaws. Attached via a ball joint, it can be positioned in a variety of poses.
The curved tubes used for the legs are an interesting choice, and gives the limbs a slightly awkward look to them. Aside from the hips, the front legs are only articulated at the toe joints, but the rear have a ball joint at the ankle too.
The wolf possesses a very bushy tail, centred around the large pink/purple flame piece, surrounded by the feathers from the raven and DoomBlob. Despite the number of joints, the animal can only be posed in a handful of sensible positions, but all look suitable aggressive for a nightmare creature!
Conclusion
The whole concept behind the DREAMZzz sets lends itself towards the fantastical, the wacky, and the downright strange. 71483 The Never Witch's Nightmare Creatures is actually one of the more normal of the sets, with a choice between two relatively realistic animals and an evil robot. Articulation of creatures such as these is always tricky, and I think that for the most part a good job has been achieved here, despite the legs sometimes looking a bit odd.
I love the colour scheme that was chosen, with the pinks and purples contrasting fantastically with the black of the rest of the body. There's a decent number of minifigures included, and it's fun to get a character and their nightmare doppleganger together. Personally, I think the raven is my favourite of the builds, although the wings did feel a little fragile and wouldn't stand up to any hint of rough play.
But the beauty of the three designs is that you can choose. They are a strange halfway point between a set that transforms without having to be rebuilt, and the Creator 3-in-1 sets, where the whole model is dismantled before building the next. So, if you do pick this set up: which one will you build?
71483 The Never Witch's Nightmare Creatures is available at LEGO.com for £39.99 / $44.99 / €44.99.
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30 comments on this article
Dreamzzz has been a lot of fun, and this looks like a really nice addition to the theme. I might get this as an opponent for my big Z-Blob model.
Trans pink, trans pink, trans pink. Where shall you be used?
And i thought "Dooper" was a bad villain name... Seriously, "Doey"? This is some Mario/Wario naming BS...
Ok but seriously, this set seems fine enough. I don't really care for LEGOs current original themes that much, but I can appreciate them.
I ended up going for the larger 71478 last month but I was really torn between that one and this, and I might still pick up this one later if/when it goes on sale. Great price point, generous minifigures, lots of imaginative play value - yes, LEGO, it can still be done!
Is the raven mis-assembled? Pretty sure the wings and legs are attached to the wrong sockets...
Anyway, I love this set, still want the larger raven, but I'm waiting for a sale for that one. Love the Dreamzzz theme.
Now I feel like I have to pick this one up instead of Castle Nocturnia. This actually has a better minifig selection.
I don't know anything about the theme or its related media, but its minifigures are top notch.
@Hellscream said:
"Is the raven mis-assembled? Pretty sure the wings and legs are attached to the wrong sockets..."
You're right, according to the instructions the wings go in the sockets nearest the neck (page 86, step 118). That would probably also alleviate the reviewer's complaint that it doesn't stand upright on its own.
@Hellscream said:
"Is the raven mis-assembled? Pretty sure the wings and legs are attached to the wrong sockets..."
Looked weird to me, too, so I checked the instructions online and, yes, the wings and legs have been mixed up :~O
@Hellscream said:
"Is the raven mis-assembled? Pretty sure the wings and legs are attached to the wrong sockets...
Anyway, I love this set, still want the larger raven, but I'm waiting for a sale for that one. Love the Dreamzzz theme."
Looking at the official images, you're right.
On the other hand, it's pretty cool that it can be built "wrong" and still work. These are nightmare creatures, after all!
The naming conventions are a bit off... "MadTeo" is okay, I guess, but the others are really weird...
If they're Doppelgängers, why not just reverse their normal names?
Mateo / Oetam;
Zoey / Yeoz;
Logan / Nagol;
Cooper / Repooc;
Izzie / Eizzi.
Not super original, I know. But "Doey"? Come on!
@DoctorZander said:
"The naming conventions are a bit off... "MadTeo" is okay, I guess, but the others are really weird...
If they're Doppelgängers, why not just reverse their normal names?
Mateo / Oetam;
Zoey / Yeoz;
Logan / Nagol;
Cooper / Repooc;
Izzie / Eizzi.
Not super original, I know. But "Doey"? Come on!"
hehe... re-poo-c
I still hate the fact that his name is Doom-Blob instead of D-Blob. Seriously, the only reason that isn't his name is because in the show, Izzy just yelled some off-the-cuff comment like "watch out for that doom blob!" Huge missed opportunity on LEGO's part.
And some people don't like the fact that there's a raven in both this set and 71478, but personally I'm glad for it. If you don't have $100 to pay for the giant raven, this small one can suffice.
@DoctorZander said:
"The naming conventions are a bit off... "MadTeo" is okay, I guess, but the others are really weird...
If they're Doppelgängers, why not just reverse their normal names?
Mateo / Oetam;
Zoey / Yeoz;
Logan / Nagol;
Cooper / Repooc;
Izzie / Eizzi.
Not super original, I know. But "Doey"? Come on!"
I think it's explained in the show that the "D" attached to front of their names stands for "doppelganger." MadTeo and Doom-Blob had the unfortunate privilege of being named first, which is why their names aren't Dateo and D-Blob.
Though now that I see it, MadTeo kinda rolls off the tongue better than Dateo.
These sets look pretty fun. I don't know if I'll pick any up, but I could see myself having fun with them if I ever built a set. The figures look cool too.
Spider cauldron is actually pretty good on its own! Too bad there aren't extra pieces for keeping that as is.
@b2_O said:
"And i thought "Dooper" was a bad villain name... Seriously, "Doey"? This is some Mario/Wario naming BS...
Ok but seriously, this set seems fine enough. I don't really care for LEGOs current original themes that much, but I can appreciate them."
The character isn't in this set, but in the show, one of the dream chasers disguised herself as an evil version of herself. Her name is Astrid, and she chose her evil name to be "Bad Astrid." I felt like an idiot since I was halfway through the episode when I finally got the pun, and I was also a bit shocked that LEGO would condone such a pun in a kids' show. Of course, I imagine that most kids watching won't realize anything's amiss with the name anyway.
@crazylegoman said:
" @b2_O said:
"And i thought "Dooper" was a bad villain name... Seriously, "Doey"? This is some Mario/Wario naming BS...
Ok but seriously, this set seems fine enough. I don't really care for LEGOs current original themes that much, but I can appreciate them."
The character isn't in this set, but in the show, one of the dream chasers disguised herself as an evil version of herself. Her name is Astrid, and she chose her evil name to be "Bad Astrid." I felt like an idiot since I was halfway through the episode when I finally got the pun, and I was also a bit shocked that LEGO would condone such a pun in a kids' show. Of course, I imagine that most kids watching won't realize anything's amiss with the name anyway."
Ok, that's actually a pretty good pun. You win this time, Dreamzzz writers!
Those magenta pieces are so bright I think my rods and cones are all messed up. I love it.
@Ridgeheart said:
" @b2_O said:
"And i thought "Dooper" was a bad villain name... Seriously, "Doey"? This is some Mario/Wario naming BS..."
"Warui": sorry, poor, loathsome, inferior, disgusting, trash. Warui + Mario = Wario; warui + Luigi = Waluigi.
Basically, Wario and Waluigi are pretty up-front about being the Temu-versions of Mario and Luigi, and I think that's beautiful."
I knew all that, if I'm being completely honest, i just wanted to mention the absolute 10/10 unit of a man that is Wario.
@Hellscream said:
"Is the raven mis-assembled? Pretty sure the wings and legs are attached to the wrong sockets...."
Ha! Great spot! I build these with my children, and my 6-year-old helped with this, but I really ought to have been paying more attention!
@DoctorZander said:
"The naming conventions are a bit off... "MadTeo" is okay, I guess, but the others are really weird...
If they're Doppelgängers, why not just reverse their normal names? "
Or put ‘Doctor’ before their name? ;~P
I may be wrong, but the Never-Witch's staff seems to be topped with not just any memory, but a signficigant complimentary set of the line: the 71486 Castle Nocturnia, shrunken and encased in a "Doom-dome", as the show calls it.
Something of a spoiler for midway through Season 2 of Dreamzzz, but Castle Nocturnia, headquarters of the Night Bureau that the protagonists work for, gets attacked pretty heavily by the Never-Witch after Madteo impersonates Mateo for a test there, allowing her to launch the spell that captures the entirety of the Castle within a dome, trapping most of the Night Bureau inside. The kid characters that make up the line's heroes are pretty much the only ones to escape, upping the stakes with them truly being the only one that can stop the Never-Witch. Dramatic stuff.
I'm going to read this review later because I am set on getting this set soon later this month. I'm not sure why but I just like this set a lot for the 3 in 1 thing and all options look good. And an evil Z-Blob robot with wings? Yes please!
Dreamzzz is doing amazing things from what I have experienced so far.
£28 at Sainsbury’s at the moment. The caldron is screaming BOTW mini guardian to me!
This is one of the few sets where I'm super-tempted to buy multiple copies, because as much as I love the main model (the raven is gorgeous), I really like one of the alternate builds, the wolf. They're just really great builds.
Although the big, bushy tail makes me think that it's meant to be a fox.
Lego always seems to excel when it comes to creating original bad-guys. I'm really enjoying the Dreamz antagonists, I think they're cool.
I have quite a few of the Dreamzzz sets but this one is a bit meh. Am starting to find the minifigures a bit repetitive now too. Though they are good (for parts), we need some new characters (I don’t watch the show and honestly don’t care). I think I have about 10 each of Mateo and Izzie minifigs now.
Great kids set. Provides a decent amount of value and nice detail on the figs.
I purchased the dino mech and the large raven. Thus, this set doesn't really appeal to me.
One thing I didn't like much about recent Ninjago sets is that the vehicle/creature like builds are often given to the ninjas, and usually there are only a small side build for the baddies to fight the ninjas with. I'm so glad that Dreamzz doesn't just limit its baddie builds to buildings. We definitely could use a more fair fight lol.
@DoctorZander said:
"The naming conventions are a bit off... "MadTeo" is okay, I guess, but the others are really weird...
If they're Doppelgängers, why not just reverse their normal names?
Mateo / Oetam;
Zoey / Yeoz;
Logan / Nagol;
Cooper / Repooc;
Izzie / Eizzi.
Not super original, I know. But "Doey"? Come on!"
100%. Nagol and Yeoz would make villain names - they sounds also sound rather LotR.
@Ridgeheart said:
" @b2_O said:
"And i thought "Dooper" was a bad villain name... Seriously, "Doey"? This is some Mario/Wario naming BS..."
"Warui": sorry, poor, loathsome, inferior, disgusting, trash. Warui + Mario = Wario; warui + Luigi = Waluigi.
Basically, Wario and Waluigi are pretty up-front about being the Temu-versions of Mario and Luigi, and I think that's beautiful."
Waluigi goes further than that. "Luigi" sounds like "ruiji." "Ruiji" means "copy" (because he was a palette-swapped copy of Mario) so "Waluigi" means "bad copy."