Random set of the day: Building Bonanza
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 4886 Building Bonanza, released during 2004. It's one of 48 Creator sets produced that year. It contains 667 pieces, and its retail price was US$40 / £24.99, which equates to about US$65 / £43 in today's money.
It's owned by 2,751 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should find it for sale at Brick Owl, BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $159.00, or eBay.
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33 comments on this article
Some set names just have so much hype for what they are, gotta love it
I didn’t know this set. At first I thought it was the similar looking house from a couple years later.
I don’t think I’ve ever watched more than maybe one or two episodes of Bonanza, but I’m pretty sure the house didn’t look like that.
It may be a building bonanza, just don't go looking inside any of them; you won't find anything.
That house looks kind of like the ones you would destroy for studs in the bonus levels in the Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga video game. Had lots of good times playing that game as a kid.
These houses were lovely, but as far as I'm aware, these were back before anyone designed any interiors for them.
Soooo...I give up; where's: Pa, Hoss, and Little Joe...:D
This is what I want from creator. No figs, usefull pieces, great builds that can be upgraded with my own collection.
@PistolLink said:
"That house looks kind of like the ones you would destroy for studs in the bonus levels in the Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga video game. Had lots of good times playing that game as a kid."
Given this set released in 2004 and LSW TCS came out in 2005, I'd say it IS the one used in the bonus level. Had to look up a picture of the bonus level, since my memory is hazy, but, excluding the baseplate stuff (trees, fence, tiles, etc.), the only notable differences between this set and the in-game structures are that the front pillar is built differently, the door is different, the side window and all the window shutters are missing in-game, and there are leaf elements on one side in-game. I guess these differences could be explained by a prototype version of this set being used for the game, or maybe the devs didn't want to use an exact copy so it didn't feel like product placement or something. Either way, quite interesting.
(BTW I HATED that level as a kid: I spent hours running around it yet could never find all the studs to get to 1 million. But my brothers replayed it recently and said it wasn't that hard, I must've just missed hidden studs in the ground or something. :/ )
@PistolLink said:
"That house looks kind of like the ones you would destroy for studs in the bonus levels in the Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga video game. Had lots of good times playing that game as a kid."
I think the same whenever we get one of these little houses pop up. The bonanza in this case must be the thousands of studs I get for smashing it to pieces!
This set was our Second Lego purchase when My daughter was small. (After Blacksmith Shop Dollhouse!) (When Forty Dollars (!!!) was a lot to pay for a Toy! ) You had to build your own interior! We would create tile floors and brick build chairs, beds, etc. Lego sold a few "accessory bags of parts" so you could swap out roof tiles, and in the pre-bricklink era, only the Lego Store at Downtown Disneyland offered new single bricks! It remains one of the very few Lego Builds that is allowed to be on display in our (kinda "two much Lego in my house") Living Room Bookcase.
I own this and didn't know it had a name other than "Designer Set" for a long time.
@BLProductions said:
" @PistolLink said:
"That house looks kind of like the ones you would destroy for studs in the bonus levels in the Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga video game. Had lots of good times playing that game as a kid."
Given this set released in 2004 and LSW TCS came out in 2005, I'd say it IS the one used in the bonus level"
Just the prequels released in 2005, Original Trilogy in 2006, and The Complete Saga in 2007, and Lego City made its debut in OT. But yeah, the language needed to convey my disdain for this house would get my comment removed. ugh.
The set that gave us Cafe Corner.
I was so excited to get this set; I didn’t have any bog-standard Lego houses at that point. I furnished it with pieces from the Lego IKEA set; I really need to do it up more professionally at some point.
Kind of a re-run of the classic Lego 70's set, now with a sensible amount of pieces rather than the unrealistic box art at the time. Also as a child this would be far more useful and more obvious what to do than yesterdays spares bin.
While for adults with the hundreds of white bricks and red roof pieces almost like the first architectural set, before the marketing people realized they could rebrand to adults at grown up prices.
@BLProductions said:
" @PistolLink said:
"That house looks kind of like the ones you would destroy for studs in the bonus levels in the Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga video game. Had lots of good times playing that game as a kid."
Given this set released in 2004 and LSW TCS came out in 2005, I'd say it IS the one used in the bonus level. Had to look up a picture of the bonus level, since my memory is hazy, but, excluding the baseplate stuff (trees, fence, tiles, etc.), the only notable differences between this set and the in-game structures are that the front pillar is built differently, the door is different, the side window and all the window shutters are missing in-game, and there are leaf elements on one side in-game. I guess these differences could be explained by a prototype version of this set being used for the game, or maybe the devs didn't want to use an exact copy so it didn't feel like product placement or something. Either way, quite interesting.
(BTW I HATED that level as a kid: I spent hours running around it yet could never find all the studs to get to 1 million. But my brothers replayed it recently and said it wasn't that hard, I must've just missed hidden studs in the ground or something. :/ )"
I think there was actually a modest surplus programmed in, so even if you didn't have the Stud Magnet turned on (can't remember if it's automatic in that level or not), you could miss a few studs and still beat the bonus level. But yeah, it's easy to get _most_ of the way there and stall out, and it can be a challenge to go around the entire level a second time looking for opportunities that you overlooked the first time around.
I'm all a shudder for those shutters.
I always thought this was a 2005 set. It released in october 2004 so maybe it was early in some regions?
Anyway, this set is a 2000s CLASSIC. It was one of the largest models of a normal house made up to that point and its white-red-black color scheme would reappear in sets following it a few times. The set also is still from the era with many different alternate models snd even more idea images. It truly lived up to its name!
Also, it's fully enclosed! So people who complain about that with playsets can rest their mouths for once. In fact, it's kind of built like the modular buildings would later with a top-down access. Remember, the earliest modulars also didn't have an interior either. The difference if course is that this isn't a modular and isn't detaild. It's a Designer set.
I never owned it however because it missed an interior and the upstairs floor is not accessible. There's not even stairs! In that sense I like 4996 Beach House more, which I do own because it does include those things. Its footprint is also half the size.
Nice looking set that I almost got back in the day. Even with the $65 inflation adjusted price, it still seems like you get way more physical abs with this set than most other similarly priced sets these days. Of course, the average design quality and detail level has improved dramatically but it’s still interesting to note.
@Zordboy said:
"These houses were lovely, but as far as I'm aware, these were back before anyone designed any interiors for them."
I own this set, and other houses that came before, and yes, there are no interiors. Still a nice house to fill in a suburban street.
love this set. Wish creator did more complete buildings on baseplates like this. there are 6 in total they did from 2004-2010. Even on plates would be fine, just none of that hinge nonsense because those ones are usually smaller in size.
I remember seeing this set in the 2004 catalog and lusting over it. I've always wanted to give my minifigs some civilian life outside of police, firefighters, construction, medics, etc. but early City didn't have that.
@Arnoldos said:
"I remember seeing this set in the 2004 catalog and lusting over it. I've always wanted to give my minifigs some civilian life outside of police, firefighters, construction, medics, etc. but early City didn't have that."
You need to start collecting the Suburbs subtheme.
As others have mentioned, this had no interior. I don’t mind that since it allowed me to make my own…and gave a home to existing minifigs.
However, houses of this era lacked windows on the sides not pictured, which seemed really bizarre. Just solid backs.
I’d love to see Creator bring back some nice simple homes like this.
The word "Bonanza" does not appear on the box.
@ShilohCyan said:
"Just the prequels released in 2005, Original Trilogy in 2006, and The Complete Saga in 2007, and Lego City made its debut in OT. But yeah, the language needed to convey my disdain for this house would get my comment removed. ugh. "
Oh, right, my bad. Not sure why I thought TCS was 2005; I should've looked it up before typing my comment. However, it being 2007 does confirm that the game devs deliberately made those changes to the model when recreating it in-game.
@PurpleDave said:
"I think there was actually a modest surplus programmed in, so even if you didn't have the Stud Magnet turned on (can't remember if it's automatic in that level or not), you could miss a few studs and still beat the bonus level. But yeah, it's easy to get _most_ of the way there and stall out, and it can be a challenge to go around the entire level a second time looking for opportunities that you overlooked the first time around."
Just a second time? How about 4 times? I spent an hour combing through that level the first time I played it, stuck at like 999,900 studs or so. I had to give up in the end and try again another time. There is supposed to be a surplus of studs in these games, but it definitely didn't seem like it for the LEGO City bonus level. And Stud Magnet is on by default I believe, so it's not like I was missing studs from things I destroyed. There were just things I was straight up not seeing, and apparently they were hidden in the ground or something. Rubbish level design, IMO.
One of my favorite sets
The simple brick houses from LEGO disappeared at the same rate as affordable housing irl. But it doesn't matter, minifigures can just live in their expensive vehicles while eating junk food all the time, just like in modern times.
Hey, I had this set!
@Rimefang said:
"I'm all a shudder for those shutters."
Looks like they’re a set exclusive in this colour!
@crazylegoman said:
"The word "Bonanza" does not appear on the box."
The picture is probably not the box, but the instructions, due to "Instructions" and "Ideas" being down there in the corner.
@BLProductions said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"I think there was actually a modest surplus programmed in, so even if you didn't have the Stud Magnet turned on (can't remember if it's automatic in that level or not), you could miss a few studs and still beat the bonus level. But yeah, it's easy to get _most_ of the way there and stall out, and it can be a challenge to go around the entire level a second time looking for opportunities that you overlooked the first time around."
Just a second time? How about 4 times? I spent an hour combing through that level the first time I played it, stuck at like 999,900 studs or so. I had to give up in the end and try again another time. There is supposed to be a surplus of studs in these games, but it definitely didn't seem like it for the LEGO City bonus level. And Stud Magnet is on by default I believe, so it's not like I was missing studs from things I destroyed. There were just things I was straight up not seeing, and apparently they were hidden in the ground or something. Rubbish level design, IMO. "
I think yes, the Stud Magnet is automatic, because it would suck to run out of available studs and be just shy of winning. In a regular level, there’s not really a target, and you lose a bunch every time you die, so it doesn’t matter if you end the level flat broke. But those bonus levels are a different thing altogether. I know there have been times, especially early on, when I didn’t notice every opportunity the first time I walked past it. As I played the games, I got better at finding stuff. Plus, when I learned to play with characters that have ranged attacks, so much of it just requires you to stand there and hold the trigger button as you slowly turn in place. Then all you have to hunt for is stuff you can’t simply destroy. For LSW, the critical thing is remembering to watch for any hint of a Force glimmer, which might be what you were missing initially. Was there a spot where you had to use the Force to pull stuff out of the ground?