Review: Little Red Riding Hood
Posted by Huw,
Little Red Riding Hood is one of four of this year's Toys R Us Bricktober sets available in Asian branches of the toy superstore.
However, if you're in the UK and want a set without the hassle of import delays, duties and taxes you can purchase them from Brick-a-Brac for £135 including P&P when you use the code BRICKTOBER at checkout. The same code will also get you a discount on last year's fairground set, taking them down to £140.
So, let's see whether it's worth shelling out for them...
Unlike last year's quartet of sets these do not come in extravagant packaging: they are supplied in nothing more than a zip-lock bag which contains two bags of parts and a thick card envelope.
It does have an official label on it, but no set number.
The instructions are accompanied by a fold-out story book in a sleeve.
The fairy tale concerning the titular girl, her grandmother and a wolf is told on 14 delightfully illustrated pages.
The instructions are provided on a large double-sided fold-out sheet, which is the case for all recent Bricktober sets.
Parts are packaged in two zip-lock bags. The larger one contains pieces for the book, the smaller for the vignette on top.
The set contains no stickers and five printed parts including a company logo on a 2x2 tile.
The book is 3 bricks and two plates high, the equivalent of 4 studs, thus allowing 2x2 curved slopes to be used on the spine to give it an attractive and realistic shape.
The vignette is mounted to the book via a turntable which allows it to be rotated. One side shows the outside of grandma's house with her granddaughter represented by a nanofig.
The other side depicts the wolf laying in bed waiting for the girl to enter. I particularly like the use of Wolverine's claws. Oh, what sharp claws you have!
It's an attractive display model that kids in particular will enjoy in conjunction with the accompanying story book.
It's expensive for what it is, but a must-have for the discerning collector. It's s shame there's no fancy box this time but the envelope and story book partially make up for it.
If you're in the UK, Brick-a-Brac is the best place to obtain a set. Elsewhere, you can buy them individually on BrickLink for slightly cheaper, but you'll have to add postage and taxes.
Thanks to Brick-a-Brac for sending me the set to review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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17 comments on this article
I've just received the Jack and Beanstalk set as a freebie thanks to an order from Toys R Us here in Malaysia and I've placed another order so that I can get Little Red Riding Hood as well. I missed Hansel and Gretel though :( Toys R Us isn't advertising the fourth one (Alice in Wonderland?) at the moment. They all look neat. I was originally planning on reselling mine, but I think I'll keep them on a bookcase along with some real books.
Probably in the vast minority here, but I found myself always more interested in the wolf in fairy tales.
@fulcrumbop said:
"Probably in the vast minority here, but I found myself always more interested in the wolf in fairy tales."
Same here, but that wolf is massive compared to a nano fig
Nice sets, but very bad value for money. So thanks but no thanks.
there's not a decimal point somewhere in that price? I can think of a lot of better sets to spend almost $190 US on. I like all of these but that price point is out of control.
I think the equivalent of 4 stud is 3 bricks 1 plate, not 2 plates. It can be seen on the picture, that the height of the book is slightly more, than the width of the spine - by 1 plate.
Unless my eyes deceive me, I see a second printed part: the 1x1 tiles on the bed, which I assume represent a comforter/quilt/blanket or some such thing. No?
@domboy said:
"Unless my eyes deceive me, I see a second printed part: the 1x1 tiles on the bed, which I assume represent a comforter/quilt/blanket or some such thing. No?"
There's a 3rd printed piece, there are slabs of tree trunks used as a welcome mat for the front door. So 3 printed pieces at least. :)
Maybe we'll get them in Canada next year.
Didn't we see Little Rod Rider Hood in RSOTD couple of days ago, or is it just me?
@domboy said:
"Unless my eyes deceive me, I see a second printed part: the 1x1 tiles on the bed, which I assume represent a comforter/quilt/blanket or some such thing. No?"
Yes, and they made an unrecognizable (ugly to me) choice if it's a quilt or blanket. I would replace it with a 15068 slope if it were mine.
When I first saw leak pics of the set, before I read it was Red Ridinghood, I thought it must be some Chinese fairy tale with a sea creature leaving a rainbow in its wake. I guess the inconsistency of scale didn't help.
@CCC:
That one (of four) printed tile is rather notable, though. Previously, they only used white tiles for 2x2 printed LEGO logos. The only other set that came with one printed on black was 6384339, apparently because the white edge of the tile would stand out too much on the shirt.
@fulcrumbop:
I’ve bought a number of short story compilations over the years. Sometimes it’s because a favorite author has one piece in it, and it’s the only way to get it. There was also a year or two where I was buying several titles from the same publisher, because they’d always advertise upcoming compilations in each one they published, and the premise of many of them sounded interesting enough to buy. Somewhere in all of these (and I can’t remember which source it came from), I ran across one short story that was basically the story of Little Red Riding Hood told as a police procedural...except every time two main characters bumped into each other, it switched genres to trashy romance novel (with fantasy elements). That might kill your interest in wolves for a while.
@CCC:
Like Scut Farkus, this wolf has yellow eyes.
She looks like a prolapsed intestine, my god. What an awful microfigure.
Looks like a big 'meh' no?
That cyborg/robot Wolf looks terrible. Even the bed doesn't look right. Thin in the middle, no slope on the sides.
The brick built book though, very nice to have.
Scale between the wolf and lil' red is appropriate here, it's the BIG bad wolf after all.
Those graphics are gorgeous.