To be perfectly honest I'm not the biggest Ghostbusters-fan. I grew up during the 90's and Ghostbusters was on TV a lot. I mean, like a lot-lot... And I really liked it and I've got the toys and fond memories to prove it! But like I said, It wasn't my go-to favorite thing.

That said, I have absolutely no regrets picking this set up!

Box/Instructions

This is my first IDEAS set ever and I was a bit surprised by the packaging of this set. Instead of the standard-y cardboard box you're used to shoving your thumbs into to open - You're getting a thick, double-folded, re-sealable, painted-on-the-inside cardboard box!

The instruction booklet is also oozing with premium-feel as you get a thick booklet with a bit more "fluff" content than your standard instructions. This fluff comes in the form of full page images, little quotes on the build pages and stuff like that. Oh and it's also printed on a different quality of paper that adds to the premium-experience.

Parts

Ok so the first thing I noticed when I opened the box up was was that the parts didn't come in the numbered bags. I don't really know why and while I don't really mind it I actually do prefer the numbered bags. With them you have a clearer structure in the actual work of putting the lego together. You know that "ok, for this section there's these pieces and nothing else".

With the un-numbered bags I had to open each of them up and sort them by color/size. Didn't take that long nor was it in any way off-putting but it felt as if it lacks the structure the numbered bags offer.

Oh and by the way - There are absolutely no stickers in this set, which for me is a relief. I'm not a fan of the stickers I must say. Although I have gotten better at it, which is a skill in itself I suppose!

Minifigures

The minifigures are really good, as you'd expect! They're very detailed and as far as I can see the only thing that differs from the outfits the 'Busters wear in the movies is that these little guys are lacking painted boots. It's in no way a deal-breaker but I think the little black boots on them would give them a little contrast to the otherwise very beige overalls they're sporting.

The build

As I mentioned earlier the build is made a little more complicated than, at least what I'm used to, due to the lack of numbered bags. Other than this the build itself is not very hard or time-consuming (of course apart from the manual sorting you have to do, again due to the lack of numbered bags).

Oh and I'm not sure if it was just me being unorganized/clumsy or if this was actually my first set that was missing a piece. It was when I came to the side-windows that I noticed I didn't have one of the 2x1 bits that are supposed to represent the bars in between of the windows. Luckily I had a spare one from another set, so it was fine!

The completed model

After finishing the build I gave it an inspection and even though I don't remember the movies that well I could tell that the attention to detail here is really something extra. The metal-finish of the grill, the caddie-fins and half-covered back-wheels along with all the doodads on the roof.. The car is just a treat to look at and putting the figures next to/into the car makes it even better!

Overall opinion

Apart from the lack of painted boots and numbered bags, which are my only real complaints - This is an excellent set and will most certainly be one of my favorite sets in my possession! And that's coming from someone who's not THAT into Ghostbusters. It just makes me want to go fire up the movies and have these little guys bust the last little bit of halloween decorative-ghost I forgot to put away!

"Oh boy, another dragon for my collection!" - This was my initial reaction when I saw this set. You see I collect brick dragons, of both the lego variety and others... But enough of imaginary things - Onwards, to the dragon!

So the set consists of two main elements: The eeeeeevil dragon and a cavern of sorts. As I've understood the plot here the Goblin King covets the crystal housed in the cavern of the peaceful bears. However being a goblin king means you don't care about cuddly bears and you'd gladly blow their cave up. Said and done, the King sends one of his minions to perform the foul deed and retrieve the crystal.

The set has only two minifigs: The Goblin King and the goblin Jimblin. None of them are of the ordinary lego minifig size since this after all is a Friends off-themed set. The King is a Friends type fig and Jimblin is a one-piece mold with movable arms. The figs, while not the focus of the set, are good. I'm normally not into the friends styled figs but the King has a certain charm to him! This is also the only set featuring The king, so bear that in mind. The goblin is a funny sidekick but also limited due to the one-piece mold. Also making an appearence are two fantasy styled bears, whereof the cub can be stolen away by the King using his magical prison.

Now then, before I move on to the main event, lets look at the bricks. There's not a lot of unique bricks here apart from the dragons head and wings. If you're like me you're dreading the sticker sheet. However there is no need for alarm as there's only four stickers included and they're all easily placed.

Enough is enough! The time is nigh - Enter the dragon! The goblin kings mighty steed is just as vicious as her evil master. Speaking of, I'm not sure if the dragon is male or female, but there's a certain feminine theme of all dragons in the elves theme. With that in mind I'm going with that this lime yellow flying reptile is also a "her".

Anyway as a dragon collector I'm happy to report that this is a good one! Although the posability is a bit wonky I must say. You see the dragons hindlegs are not built with a stop-hinge design which means that balance is an issue. However it's more often than not fixable via the stop-hinge feet.

Apart from these issues the posability is quite nice. Of course I'd love to see more points of articulation but for a non-premium lego design it's still good. In fact compared to the latest face-printed dragons of 2013 and '14 - The posability is very much improved.

So because of the lack of minifigs and surrounding build aspects, this comes in at a very resonable price. Here in Sweden I picked it up for rougly the equivilant of 30,8 USD.

So all in all you get a nice little set with few figures but a dragon that makes up för it. If you're looking to expand your medieval themed display with another dragon or looking to get your first dragon this is a set I can recommend.

Farmland Frenzy! The Scarecrow has constructed a diabolical weapon of fear and the vicious Killer Moth joins in on the side of evil. However the Batman and the Blue Beetle are soon in place to defend the citizens of Gotham against this new threat!

Box/Instructions

I was a bit surprised when the store clerk returned with this box. I thought to myself - "But, it's so big!". I had expected a somewhat medium-small size set, fetching a high price due to the number of figures and whatnot. Inside the box we find the numbered bags, two instructional booklets, a sticker sheet and a comic!

Parts

There isn't a whole lot to say about the parts really. You've got a color mix of a lot of black (being present in all builds), red for the tractor, blue for the helicopter and translucent green and light/dark brown for the harvester. As to be expected of any helicopter build you get a canopy and the Y-looking front pieces for the cockpit. Not owning a lot of helicopters however I was surprised and impressed by the landing gear/stand (whatever the technical term is!) which is one big, solid piece upon which the main body of the helicopter rests in good balance.

There's also two land vehicles in the set which means you'll get wheels! However, considering the design of actual farming vehicles being replicated here, you get different sized wheels which may be troublesome if you were hoping to harvest them for another build.

Minifigures

As much as I enjoy a good vehicle or structure or whatever, the minifigs is always where it's at for me! Luckily we're treated with a whole bunch of 'em in this set!

Now then, the recent movies and video games have all adapted a more or less realistic look for their characters. That is why we, at first glance, can pretty much tell that the minifigs are not from any of those but rather from the comic/animated series designs with their bright colors and exaggerated features.

Saving the best for last we'll begin with the Killer Moth. I'll have to be honest with you guys - I am not a huge fan of DC comics. I know the very typical Batman characters and that stuff but other than that I'm pretty lost. Killer Moth is not a character I am familiar with at all and thus he ranks pretty low with me just based on what I see here. I can imagine he's a hit with kids though, looking all insect/alien-like with wings and red eyes. I do have to mention and also applaud one feature of this guy though and that's the side-printed legs! Sure it's a very basic print with colored, thick lines but still - More of that please!

Then we have the farmer. This poor little guy probably just got up this morning to feed the pigs and plow some fields and then comes this psychopath with a suped up, terror-machine. I'd also be stuck with a screaming face if that happened to me! He's a pretty generic civilian victim that we often see in these supervillian scenarios. There's few details to be found here but you can clearly tell he's a farmer by his dirty tank top and cap. I know it's farfetched but I'd like to have seen some detail on the cap. Maybe some trucker-cap design or a little funny logo on the front would've really knocked this one out of the park!

What would a Batman set be without Batman? Welcome, considering the plethora of Batmen we all have by now! ^_^ Jokes aside - Here we get a special looking Batman all equipped with his gas protection suit and ready to take on the Scarecrow! The gas protection suit has light green details and is almost robotic looking in a way. He also comes with a gas mask accessory that could also be used for a divers breath-mask I guess. His cape is of the new felt material which I think is one of the best new(-ish) changes and I really hope it becomes a standard.

Coming up near the end of the list we have the main villain of the set - The Scarecrow! On a side note - I would've loved to swap this scarecrow with the one from The Wizard of Oz. Poor Dorothy... Muahaha! Anyway, this guy just looks plain evil with his red eyes, stitched mouth and the endearing (but dangerous), harmless scarecrow look.

Last but not least another figure and character which is new to me is the Blue Beetle. I had to look this guy up because I didn't know if he was good or bad. In my defense he doesn't automatically strike me as obviously benevolent! Regardless of my knowledge about the character, this guy looks really cool on his own but if we put on the wings and the neck collar-thing I think I have found one of my new favorite looking figures. As always I do appreciate printed boots, especially in cases like this where the lack of color would make the character look a little dull.

The build

The build process for this set in whole was pain-free and smooth. The only problem I ever had was seeing which way the dark brown pieces were supposed to go on. Maybe it's the room I'm building in but the dark brown color in the instructions is just so dark I can't clearly make it out.

As I briefly mentioned earlier, there is a sticker sheet in this one but worry not - They're all placed on pieces that make it really hard to screw up. And in the cases of the metal plate ones - It doesn't really matter if you put 'em on a bit crooked. Both the tractor and the harvester are supposed to look old, battered and repaired all amateur like anyway so you can't do wrong really!

The completed model

So after a relatively quick build session they were all finished - The bat-copter, the Harvester of Fear and the tractor. While the main draw for me was initially the harvester itself (I love me some evil doomsday-devices!) I must say that the little tractor has found a special place in my heart. It's so simple and yet it has so much character.

Don't get me wrong though, the harvester is every bit as nasty and evil as I had hoped and it shall sow terror unending... Until the bat shows up in his helicopter that is! I do have some opinions on the helicopter which you can read in the "overall opinion"-section but I must admit that it looks really good!

Overall opinion

I am really impressed by this set, as you might have gathered reading up until this point. However I must mention some negative points. Do note that this critique is more personal than anything else so please do not consider them factual.

So, while the helicopter is a really cool and welcome vehicle in this set and in my collection - I feel that it is somewhat redundant. I understand that you need some hero-features to make this set complete but I for one would've been happy with just the harvester and the tractor and their specific driver figures.

I also feel that the helicopter is somewhat over-engineered and turned out quite beefy in comparison to the other vehicles because of it. I understand that this is needed because of the play-feature with the tail activating the side panels. I also do not really play with my legos but rather pose and collect. That might be why I feel the way I do but again - I would've been happy with the harvester, scarecrow, tractor and farmer and that would've meant I would pay less and be even more satisfied.

Aside from that though I feel overall that this was one of my best purchases of 2016 - Easy! It has beautiful models, a lot of minifigures considering the size, a lot of play value with three vehicles and action-features and while maybe not spectacular in terms of parts - There's enough in this package to satisfy pretty much any even remote fan of the Batman franchise.

Ghost Rider, Hobgoblin, Spider-Man, flames, bikes, gliders, webs, grenades... What's not to like?! I picked this set up at the only official Lego store in Sweden. When possible I pick up sets affiliated with films I see at the same mall. This time I got this set and then went to see Suicide Squad.

...What? Yeah, yeah - I know, I know... Oh shush, you!

Box/Instructions

The box follows the new standard of the 2016 Spider-Man sets. The changes, as I see them, are: They changed the brick-spidey in the upper right corner for a "realistic" comic-book looking Spider-Man. The minifigure "dashboard" has been placed on the left instead of the right and they also ditched the "Ultimate"-bit. These new sets are thus just "Spider-Man" sets.

Aside from this nothing is really new, you've got the presentation on the front, details on the back, a minifig scale up top.

The instructions are as always quite clear. The only piece I had a problem with was the black half-dome with wings (nr 4218581). In the instructions it was really hard to see which way that particular piece was meant to go on. However it becomes quite clear after assembling that part you're working on. I was also a bit confused as to how far I was meant to bend the back of the seat and the "hood" of the bike. However that too became obvious after a while as the Ghost Rider couldn't sit down in his seat or that the hood was in the way of the "forks" of the front wheel.

Parts

First off, the only parts I'm not really satisfied with is the sand beige connector parts in the middle of the wheels. Considering how pretty much the whole bike (except for the flames) are black, dark grey or light grey these connector parts just pop out too much. It's a little thing but it would've made a difference in my opinion.

Other than that there's not much I can really say about the parts. However there are a couple of new-ish elements in here: The purple parts of Hobgoblins glider, Spider-Mans cone shaped web, 'Goblins grenade and the traffic light post. The latter two did surprise me to be new. The Goblin Grenade could easily have been a Halloween/horror themed part but I do appreciate that they took the time to craft a new one that perhaps suited the Goblin better. The traffic light post surprised me not only in that it's a new part for this year but that it was there, because I had just expected the post to be made of more individual bricks.

Minifigures

Ah, the minifigures! Now then, if you've had a set since 2012 that featured a regular Spider-Man then chances are you've already got the Spidey that's in here. Don't get me wrong - It's a good design, so why change it? However I kinda do wish that they'd make the red-booted Spider-Man the standard. The amount of blue on the Spidey in this (and many other) sets just strike me as a bit too much. Spider-Mans suit is a well balanced mix of blue and red and the boots would offset the blue by a healthy amount.

Now to the new guys on the block - Ghost Rider and Hobgoblin! Both of these are brand new minifigs we haven't seen before, which is exciting!

Where to start? Let's go for the villain in the set and have a look at Hobgoblin. First thing I noticed was that they gave him boots! I feel bad for Spider-Man now... Anyway, besides this being a new figure there's another reason as to why I'm happy to see Hobgoblin in the Lego family: He was always one of my favorite villains in Spider-Man! "Why, was it because of his personality or relation to Spider-Man?", you ask. No, he just looked cool and weird! I don't even know anything about his personality, he just looked awesome and I'm happy to report that he does so in Lego-form as well!

There are a couple of things that are nitpicky but annoyed me a little anyway: His suits blue parts of not scaled, as it is represented in many sources. His satchel, while present, is printed on the back. I realize that this is the only place to put it but it's hidden by the cape, which is a shame. While we're on the subject of the cape - While really cool with it's tattered edges and holes I really wish they could've made it out of the new felt-like material rather than the old, rigid, non-floppy material. Capes are supposed to be floppy!

Then we have the Ghost Rider, AKA Johnny Blaze I think? Although we do not get to see the person beyond the 'rider, the 'rider himself is plenty! I was a bit worried that the Riders suit (black leather jacket and pants) would be kinda boring to see but luckily that is not the case - The overall design is pretty straightforward with some pockets, zippers and whatnot. Then the fun details begin to show when you look closer: First, the Ghost Riders signature chain is strapped around his jacket and waist, which is a really good design because it cuts the jacket off from the simple solid black pants. Another look reveals the torn up holes in the jacket and through them we can see the fire burning beneath!

The other signature feature of the Ghost Rider is the ever-burning skull! This feature is of course represented in the set, although in a way I was not quite expecting: Instead of just having a skull head piece with a fire-wig attatched, the whole thing is one sculpted (or glued together) part! Not exactly disappointing but fire-hair would've been a nice addition to your arsenal when doing random character builds.

The build

The build was pretty straightforward, no special operation needed. There were stickers (*gasp!*) but they were all meant for surfaces that made it quite easy to center them so I managed alright. They went on the street signs, the newspaper dispensers and the newspapers themselves. Signs always freak me out a bit when it comes to stickers because I feel that they should be pretty straight. The newspaper are kind of more forgiving because if you see a newspaper it's not really always straight. They're folded weird or have fallen and gotten crooked and it's fine.

It's been a while since I bought a set that's just not a figure and some accessory so I was actually impressed by how the bike was put together and how narrowly the fire parts are to the wheels without being able to touch it.

The completed model

The models that come in this set is divided in three - A street corner with traffic lights and newspaper dispensers, the Hobgoblins air glider and the Ghost Riders motorcycle. In my opinion these three are just a treat in so many ways - The streetcorner is a neat little addition to pretty much any contemporary setting, be it a simple City themed display or your coolest super-hero battles. The glider is not very big or advanced but it doesn't need to be. It's a small tech device meant for taking the Hobgoblin around and taking the Spider out. It's got wings for the former and missiles for the latter! Since I don't really play with my sets I tend to just turn the missile"bodies" around and instead make it into a turret looking weapon.

Then we have the piece de res... Piece... Bah! We have the big bad a** motorcycle! The Ghost Riders personal carrige is suitably something that seems taken straight out of a heavy metal song or album cover. My initial reaction was that the MC needed more flames, cause that's what the 'Rider is all about. However in the long run I think this design is just delicious in not only how it looks pretty darn good on its own but also in how they've balanced flame and machine. Like I mentioned earlier, I would've liked to see the beige connector part to be grey instead as it just would've followed the bikes overall colour-scheme better.

I was also a bit skeptical about the big red bits coming out at the sides by each wheel. "This will just look silly..." I thought to myself as I continued to build. However when the flames got on there, they flowed really well as the red in the connector bits flowed into the flame bit quite naturally.

Overall opinion

Overall I'd say that this is a pretty great set. You get never before seen figures, you get some brand new parts, display-worthy vehicles. Like I mentioned earlier, I don't really play with my sets but I can certainly see the play value coming into play here. Spider-Man launched from the super jumper to get face-to-face with the airborne Hobgoblin while the Ghost Rider is ready to give chase on his cool looking motorcycle.

Considering how much I just love how the motorcycle looks, the nostalgia of the Hobgoblin and some great new pieces the price is maybe not the best but I feel that I got my fill with this one!

When I first heard about a new Castle-theme coming, I was very excited. You see I'm a late arrival to the LEGO-hobby so I've missed out on a lot of castle themes and I'd love to have a big castle, trolls, knights, dragons, kings, queens and whatnot.

...And then they announced Nexo Knights. Truth be told - My first impression of the images was not great.

However, I warmed up to the idea of this theme and went and got my first NK-set: The Beastmaster Chariot! Let's see how it turned out..

Box/Instructions

The box is clad in a deep-blue and bright orange color-theme. As we all know by now this is very pleasing to the eye and combined with the set in action it all comes together nicely. You've also got Jestro, the main bad-guy of the theme, poking out his head in the bottom-left corner.

The instructions come in two parts and they've got the same image as the box. I noticed that the second part was also larger than the first. I guess it's because they wanted to include larger images of the other sets in the theme and also the instructions on how to get started with the mobile game.

Parts

The set has a lot of black and dark brown parts to make up the base chariot. The details of the chariot however are mostly in red or orange along with some beautifully sculpted lava and fire pieces that I believe are new with this theme.

There's also a bit of silver and blue bits in here and they make up the smaller vehicle - The knights robot-horse.

You've also got the monster pieces which all have printed faces on them.

There's also a sticker sheet with nine stickers.

If I could make one change in the pieces included it would be to take out the blue technic pieces and include red ones instead. On some parts of this build you can see the blue pieces sticking out and to me it would make a lot more sense to have red ones instead. The whole thing about the lavamonsters are that they're... Lavamonsters. Lava, fire, red, y'know?

Minifigures

This is the reason why I warmed up (no pun intended) to this lavamonster vs tech-knights set - The minifigs! We've got two in this set and it's the evil Beastmaster and the brave princess-knight Macy.

First we've got the Beastmaster and he's this... Well, master of beasts! The big red, teethy spheres in front of the chariot, the little catapult ammo and his personal weapons are all little monsters with really cool printed faces on them and the Beastmaster is the one who's pulling their leash, sending them to do his evil bidding!

I'm the kinda guy you see rooting for the bad-guys in movies and I really like the design of the lavamonsters in this theme. They kind of remind me of the Uruks in the Lord of the Rings sets. The Beastmaster has bright red lava-skin and is sporting a barbaric-looking harness and loincloth along with a hood (Those textiles would make amazing fire-fighter outfits). There's some really nice details here such as the eyepatch and the little claws on his feet. You can tell this guy ain't your well mannered neighbour that signs for your packages when you're not home and doesn't open them. He'd open them... Oh yes he would!

His personal weapons are little orange beasts with chained leashes that the Beastmaster holds in his hands.

The second minifigure in the set is Macy! She's not only a tough knight but according to the story she's also a princess. She's apparently frustrated because her father, King Halbert, will not acknowledge her as a knight and she'll do anything to prove her worth!

Each knight in the set seems to have its own color and Macy is the red knight. She's wearing a heavy steel/gray armor with red tech-details such as the stomach plates, boots and digital shoulder plates. In the middle of her chest is her dragon icon, probably fitting because of her temperament. She's got a shield with exchangeable front plates and as a weapon she's got a big, spikey mace.

The build

Building this set was a breeze. With only two bags and 314 pieces I can't imagine it will take anyone, regardless of skill, much time to assemble the two vehicles and the minifgures included in this set.

However I did, as I often do, manage to put a couple of pieces wrong. Due to the relative simplicity of the build it didn't take me long to repair the damage to get back on track.

The completed model

So once you've finished that second bag you've got the Beastmaster of the lavamonsters and his personal chariot. To oppose him you've got the knight Macy along with her personal transport - The mecha-horse-bike-thing.

The chariot has a two main playable features and right behind the Beastmasters seat you've got this big catapult to fling the little red monsters at his foes. The second and most fun feature would be the big chomping lavamonsters in the front. Turning the little platform in front of the Beastmaster opens and closes the mouths of the lavamonsters. The action is very smooth and when the monsters close their mouths there's a satisfying little clap or chomp-noise!

There's also a little demon-book that you assemble that the Beastmaster is supposed to protect. If I'm not mistaken it's one of the demon books Jestro uses to summon vicious fiends to his side.

So there some good play-value to be had here. You've got the Macy swooshing around on her hover-bike and closing in on her there's the Beastmaster with his lava-monsters chomping away!

Overall opinion

Like I said in my introduction I was not very convinced about the Nexo Knights theme at first. The tech stuff mixed with classic knight stuff seemed a bit silly and there was a lot of bright, transparent pieces that was supposed to be digital weaporny and armor. Yeah...

In retrospect though I must admit I was wrong! The tech-knight stuff blends into this unique and fun theme with a classic looking villain army that also works well with other sets.

I have not yet played the game so I can't really say anything about the game or the powers that are included in this set. However I will say that it seems like a fun way to interact with the theme and of course there's a "collect 'em all"-component here that will drive serious players to buy every set.

I look forward to getting more sets in this theme! I really like the lava army and will look to get more sets that are centered around that portion of the theme but I'm starting to get around to liking the knights as well :)