REVIEW: 70810 MetalBeard's Sea Cow

[yellost]

Set Title: MetalBeard's Sea Cow

Set #: 70810

Theme: The LEGO Movie

Pieces: 2741

Minifigures: 6

Year of Release: 2014

Price at Release: USD 249,99/ EUR 249,99 /GBP 169,99

I had the joy of receiving this giant box yesterday and since noone seems to have done a review of it yet, I thought it'd be a good opportunity to do my part for this little community of ours ^^

So here goes. I admit, I shamelessly ripped off Clone O'Patra's structure to help me out in organising my thoughts.

BOX

this thing is massive. But I'm happy to say that it isn't needlessly so. The content actually takes most of the space inside.

The art depicts a really nice dramatic night scene of the ship sailing the sea in the moonlight. Although the LEGO Movie takes a little too much space to my taste. And on the bottom right corner, we have the regular call out of all the minifigs included.

Those figs are also better shown on the side of the box

Then the back shows many of the features included in the set.

CONTENTS

obviously, 2700+ pieces count for something. They come in multiple bags numbered 1 to 9 (two or three per number) plus an extr aone containing the mast and sail pieces and the hull pieces were loose in the box

The instruction book is a massive 287-page volume.

this comes with the standard pieces call out before each step and was prety easy to follow. It even has the 1:1 image of some of the more confusing pieces when their length matters.

Unfortunately, the set also comes with a sticker sheet. I was quite disappointed to sea the treasure maps on it too.

BUILD

The whole build took me around 7 hours to complete (since I'm a junkie, I did it all in one go)

the first bag contains a first set of minifigs and a mini MetalBeard (which I counted among the minifigs but since he is brickbuild, I guess it's a matter of opinion )

A few pieces I'd never seen before : some miniature version of the ball joints and a different grapling hook

Part two comes with the other figs, the micro managers and the famous double decker couch.

And part 3 begins building the ship proper, starting with the hull and the gun deck

Part 4 then adds more guns on the sides

It also came with an interesting piece I'd never encountered : a 2x2 round tile with a hole in the middle

Part 5 builds the round parts of the front and back of the hull, using the same technique as in the Imperial Flagship (another favourite set of mine)

Then we build the rear cabin which contains the armory and some sort of engine. I assume it's for all the propellers at the back

7 adds the captain's cabin and one of the mast. This is where the sheer size of the ship starts making taking pictures a bit tricky. Also it was getting late and the light didn't really help...

Bags 8 contains the rest of the masts and sails that are directly attached to the ship

And finally, we build the middle deck and the steam engine.

All in all, that was a very enjoyable build with quite a few nice surprises hidden here and there.

MINIFIGS

The set comes with Benny, Wyldstyle (are you Djing?), Emmet, Vitruvius, Queasy Kitty and MetalBeard (I'll get back to him in a minute)

Since I don't have any other movie set, I assume they're the same (Emmet is from the promo polybag). Except for Queasy Kitty. She has a nice sick shade of green and her face is a printed piece. Also, I have to admit I'm a little disappointed in Benny's helmet. I realise they can't really break every model they make for the sake of accuracy but that mold still looks kind of weird.

All the regular figs come with variant back printed head. Although I had to look really hard to spot the difference on Wyldstyle's (the bottom of her eye dots look like she's slightly squinting or something)

Now Mini Metal Beard on the other hand, I really like. The ymanaged to capture his look in mini form pretty well. It even comes with an anchor on his peg leg and a shark on his right hand

Although admittedly, the back is a little bland and he is rather hard to set in any sort of interesting action pose

Then come the two micro managers

The big one comes with hidden flick fire missiles on the sides an a radar dish that folds down from his back (the stand isn't included)

And the smaller one is a cutesie that spits a net from its mouth

SET

And now for the actual set.

Let's start with the really important part : the double decker couch, of course.

This is where I must be more of an Emmet than a master builder, because I actually find the idea pretty nice (it doesn't come wit hidden compartments, though)

And the ship

That thing is huge. I called Benny to help me give a sense of scale

The front view

And the back. There should be a few stickers on there but I'm still on the fence on whether I should apply them or not...

A few pieces of interest :

the machine gun attached to the front mast. It looks really nice, although a little impractical since it cannot swivel left or right.

The figure at the top of the highest mast reminds me of the head of one of those white parrots with yellow feathers on the back of their head. I don't know if that's what they were aiming for but I find it a nice touch none the less.

The place where MetalBeard drives the ship looks like a giant armchair but I could'nt make him fit in there. As I said, his posability isn't too great although they did it on the box art, so it's obviously doable

The shipcan be separated in three parts for easy access to the captain's cabin and the gun deck below

The central piece even has some hidden gems tucked in the beams

At the back of the top deck, there is a nice looking telescope, too

And then just below is the captain's cabin. All those 4x4 tiles are supposed to be treasure maps and blueprints but I haven't applied the stickers. Tere shold also be a portrait on the 4x2 brown tile on he wall. Also, I have no idea what that thing along the window is supposed to be. It sort of looks like a morse machine or a stapler. It confuses me a little.

But the other side has an inkpot and a ship in a bottle and some rhum on a shelve

Finally, there is the armory/engine room with a nice candelbra hanging from the ceiling. It's accessible by the front or the sides that can be opened for easier access

CONCLUSION

I love it. It's big, full of nifty little details and the whole thing looks impressive while its proportions makes it a little cartoonish. Not an easy combination but they pulled it off anyway.

It's definitely worth its value. I'm really glad LEGO started making those higher price ranges where the designers go crazy on the stuff they can include.

Edited May 15, 2014 by Rufus
Indexed

[Solscud007]

Wow great review. Thanks

[TheBrickPal]

Pcvando did a review of it in the Pirates Forum. Still, great review! I cannot pass this set down now. I simply must have it.

Edited March 3, 2014 by Puffle Pal26

[Yak]

Hey, great review!

I notice you made a tiny mistake on the chimney stack, you used grey piece 4211097 with the holes instead of 4558959. You've probably used it on the main mast, I did exactly the same thing when building mine.

I also notice there's a couple of differences between the instructions and the box art. The gold brick under the Cow is reversed and the construction of the post on the ships wheel is slightly different.

cheers

Scott

[Vindicare]

Also, this Emmet has a different face print(both sides) than other sets. I saw this on display in the window of a LEGO store. Originally I wasn't going to get this because I'm not all that into the big pirate ships. But, after seeing it includes the double decker couch and a Kitty variant, and seeing the huge size of the thing, I was sold. This review has reinforced my decision to buy, gat job.

Edited March 11, 2014 by Legocrazy81

[Lyichir]

Also, this Emmet has a different face print(both sides) than other sets. I saw this on display in the window of a LEGO store. Originally I wasn't going to get this because I'm not all that into the big pirate ships. But, after seeing it includes the double decker couch and a Kitty variant, and seeing the huge size of the thing, I was sold. This review has reinforced my decision to buy, gat job.

A different face than most other sets—Emmet's face in this set is the same as the one in Cloud Cuckoo Palace and the Piece of Resistance polybag.

[conorp43]

Its an amazing set, but the value is bad. 200 or 250 wouldve sold me

[neoconagenda]

great review. I was on the fence and still am. I wish they would release an ultimate version of these sets that are true to the movie... I know all of the reasons they dont - but we can dream!