Review: 41614 Owen & Blue
Posted by Huw,
It's an exciting time to be a BrickHeadz fan, what with figures from three licensed franchises about to be released, as well as the excellent 41597 Go Brick Me.
41614 Owen & Blue is the first Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom one and is interesting because it contains the first non-humanoid/anthropomorphised figure.
Let's see how well the BrickHeadz anatomy adapts to representing a dinosaur...
Parts
LEGO has not yet published the set's inventory but quickly scanning through that at the back of the instructions suggests that there are a number of recoloured parts in it, including 2x2 plates with cut corner in sand green, and 2x4 tiles in dark green.
Owen
Owen, played by Chris Pratt in the film, is standard BrickHeadz fare and as usual most of the characterisation is achieved by the figure's hair.
True to the character in film, he's attired in sand blue shirt and leather sleeveless jacket, and as is standard in BrickHeadz sets, all decorated elements are printed. It begs the question why parts in a £650 UCS set can't be printed when those in a £10 one can. But, I digress...
The 1x2x2 brick at the front is printed with an open shirt and belt pattern, while two 1x1 brown bricks are printed with pockets.
Owen is armed with a tranqiliser gun
As is often the case, a lot of the parts in the model are used to create the hair texture, and it looks great.
Overall, then, a competent BrickHeadz but nothing special or out of ordinary.
Blue
The same can't be said for Blue, who is the first non-humanoid and non-anthropomorphised BrickHeadz. The designers have done a pretty good job of massaging the BrickHeadz standard anatomy to suit the Velociraptor.
The body is of course very different, but the head is built using the standard method, albeit with eyes on the side of the head. Consequently, from the front, it looks a bit naff but from a 3/4 or side view I think it looks great.
The 1x4 bricks with dino skin print provides interest and helps breaks up the regularity of the colour scheme.
Here you can see it's just a standard 4x4x4 head on a different shaped body.
Verdict
BrickHeadz models of humans are all much the same bar the hair and chest pattern so having a something completely different makes a refreshing change.
Although it's very different, it's still recognisable as a BrickHeadz and I suppose that's testament to the flexibility of the basic design.
I don't suppose this set will do anything to sway the BrickHeadz-haters, of which there are many, but those that adore them will find much to to like here.
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42 comments on this article
Lego probably can't believe their luck that so many people have fallen for this terrible, terrible theme. The only bright spot for me is some of the parts re-colours the theme has introduced.
Speak for yourself since I love the theme! So will this also be available in europe?
I think it's quantity of sets that is the issue with printing parts - they are probably making 10-50x more of a brickhead set than they are of a UCS set... Especially now that UCS sets don't have limited runs {if they were to make 10,000 Falcons they could have printed 11,000 parts and know they would have enough without a re-run!}
So it will be cost effective to do runs of printed parts - especially as there are so few printed tiles in the set - it probably even out ways the fact they would have to include a small sticker sheet in the system!!
I'm not a huge fan of BH line, but I must admit that they're going better and better with time and I guess new influences. This dinosaur is cute, and that could be a set to purchase for a gift or so. We have seen many good "MOC" BH made by fans, and both those look like they could come from an AFOL idea. BH are divisive, it seems that people like them or not, but IMO designs are overall going on the good way. Thank you for the review.
Seems a tad weird Owen doesn't have a print for his moustache. Still looks great, though! Blue on the other hand... hmm. I wasn't expecting any non-humanoid Brickheadz and it's just sorta strange. I'll buy it regardless
Aleydita I'm sincerely sorry but it's not because you don't like something that it is wrong or terrible or bad. As told before I 'm not a fan of BH but if so many people like them, we can say that they are somehow good don't you think?
So cool! This is definitely unexpected, but awesome! I look forward to seeing what Lego does in the future.
I think Blue looks more like a bird than a dinosaur. But as those two are related, it is not really unexpected.
On a side not, BrickHeadz seems to be one of the most divisive themes LEGO has ever introduced. Quite a bit of love on one side versus so much hate on the other. I admit, I don't like the theme very much either, but what annoyed me most was that LEGO got rid of the excellent Mixels line to make way for the BrickHeadz. Imho there could have been room for both.
The sand green and printed parts are very tempting...
This also looks to be one of the better BrickHeadz as well, so I may pick this up tbh.
thisisteekay i think you are right he looks wrong with out his mustache
I kind of like the dino, but the printing instead of brick-building the detail is a constant disappointment for me. The Brick-built Wonder-Woman instructions that were given away made for a far, far more appealing build than any of the actual figures sold on the shelves.
I'm very annoyed the one Brickhead I'd buy (the dinosaur) is in a two pack!
I find it slightly ridiculous that the Brickheadz version of Blue, a velociraptor, is much, much better than the upcoming Brickheadz version of Chewbacca, who is humanoid and bipedal.
These are cheaply-designed, mass-produced tat masquerading as Lego collectibles. Given they're all so alike except for colours, printed parts and an outer layer of hands/hairstyle, they lack the one thing that Lego is normally commended for - creativeness. A handful of these would have been good, 100s of them? No. They show the lazy, money-grabbing side of Lego that seems to be in evidence everywhere.
Thanks for the review. Any news on when the regular sets will hit the lego shops?
@merman - Yes, Huw purchased this set in the UK. 41489 Rey & Kylo Ren seems to be the only set not to appear in Europe so far, other than the convention exclusives.
"why parts in a £650 UCS set can't be printed when those in a £10 one can"
Volume, volume, volume, just like drbaggy said. Big runs and full retail sales of these vs much smaller number for UCS (and similar) sets help offset and justify the extra costs associated with printed parts. Plus, these sets have a different focus, they're almost certainly intended to also appeal to people outside the regular Lego demographic, so they're as easy as possible.
Come on, that's the kind of complaint I expect to hear from amateur commenters on reddit, not from Brickset reviews.
Great pictures Huw. Originally i thought Blue was pretty poor but this puts a much better perspective than the official shots I’ve seen.
Couldn’t agree more with your comments about printing. Perhaps a question you can raise with Lego at your next meeting?
These are very polarising among afol's, you even said "BrickHeadz models of humans are all much the same bar the hair and chest pattern". So could you not compromise and bundle these reviews into themes instead of flooding the website for the next couple weeks with articles and reviews that are pretty much all the same? Keep all your loyal fans happy that way.
I don't particularly like brickheads, but I don't mind them either, and I never understood why people were so opposed to blue, I think it looks fine.
What a glorious parts pack!!!
This site has really changed in the last 6 months. Little Lego news, few reviews except for Brickheadz, and new filler with the "Random Set Of The Day" now being a full story. Sad.
This week we are focusing on BrickHeadz but it's unfair to say there are few reviews.
In the last 6 months we've published 153 of them, which is more than one every 2 days. Any more than that and visitors would struggle to read them all, which would make them wasted effort.
We do not publish every little LEGO-related story that other sites do as the majority are of little consequence and I think you'll agree the main reason for visiting the site is not to read the news, which you can get anywhere these days, but the database. We therefore concentrate most of our efforts on improving it and keeping it up to date.
I agree with Huw 100%. To say that there are few reviews, and most of them BrickHeadz, is just ridiculous. It might seem like that this week, but as Huw said, it's kind of a BrickHeadz special, so there.
Funny, having to defend BrickHeadz reviews even though I myself don't really like the theme either. Then again, I like unfair comments even less ;-)
Thanks Huw for your reply/explanation. It was just my observation. I come to this site twice a day, and still find it extremely useful. I do look here for the latest Lego news, but maybe there are other sources for that. Maybe it's a "me" problem, as I mainly collect Technic, City, Creator, and Star Wars and lose interest when it's not those. I understand you have a greater audience with many other themes to cover.
I'm slowly beginning to love BrickHeadz more and more! I love Blue's stripe in this, it's really REALLY vivid compared to her past appearances.
Also, is that a hair I see on the first picture of Owen? ;)
@MataNui2009 I think Huw's cat sometimes infiltrates the photography room/box ;)
^ Yes, they get everywhere!
@ mdonahue7, no worries. We can't please everyone all the time!
"Bricks uh, find a way." I love Blue and I will see if she only comes apart later.
"Dinosaur" and "velociraptor" are very generous terms to describe anything in the JP franchise.
I don't much care for this theme, but if people do like them, whatever, people can spend their change on whatever they want.
It's just, whenever I hear an AFOL absolutely losing their nut over Lepin or [insert Chinese brand here] copying and pasting from Lego lines and ideas, I'm gonna think of these guys and Funko's Pop Vinyl figures, and I'm just gonna giggle to myself a little, then move on.
Exactly Zordboy, exactly. Plus LEGO pretty much stole the design of the 'modern' LEGO brick back in the 60s that LEGO cult members don't seem to care about / live in denial.
I love these! Blue is the stronger of the two, but still a great pair!
There’s a set on eBay!
Cool set, I like BrickHeadz (Go Brick Me is my most wanted set so far this year), though I liked Cubedudes more as they required more effort to design.
I think Blue is delightful; I will probably try to Bricklink her one way or t'other (depending on whether or not someone breaks the pair apart on Bricklink, since I'm not interested in spending money on Owen). I'm reserving judgment on Go Brick Me until I've had a chance to look it over very carefully. On the whole the Brickheadz theme doesn't interest me very much, and I agree that Mixels was much more original, but I'm not going to confuse my personal taste with a reason to condemn an obviously popular theme.
Do we know the UK price and release date?
Haters can keep on hating, because I love this theme, and I hate minifigs. So having neat cheaper priced sets that gives me these cool tiles and other bits in recolors I want, without the markup of those dumb tiny, useless for MOCing figures is fantastic!
I was on the fence about this set, but now that I've read the review, I think I'm gonna get it. Owne's hair provides enough interest, and the printed parts on Blue look resuable enough, plus I do love me some sand green. <3
So there are definitely no more printed plates for the base to indicate the series? That's going to irritate my OCD-ness something awful.
@Mana-Ramp-Matoran Excuse me Dave, did you just state that the minifig is useless for moccing at large scale? You need their studless accessories to even build large scale heads in the first place! These brickheadz are cancer for our area of expertise. They provide no new molds to explore. I haven't bought a single BH and likely never will for this reason. That money will go towards CMFs instead since that's "Mold Testing Ground" the theme.
Been pretty vocal in my disdain for this theme however having purchased 3 JWFK sets yesterday and seeing this one been a non standard BH, I bit the bullet and picked one up. The build on the dino was enjoyable for my 9yr old so money well spent. Seeing another article showing a 2nd Batman BH shows this is a massive cash cow for Lego and they don't even have to think anymore. Where's the variation!!!?