UP from PIXAR is one of the last films from that studio that I truly thought was great (though Toy Story 3 and Inside Out come close) so when my daughters friend brought this set round one weekend to build I was eagerly waiting to get my hands on it for a few photos. I ended up taking enough photos that I thought I would write a short review of the set. Let’s get started because “Adventure is out there.”
From LEGO:
Adventure awaits Disney fans aged 9 and up with this fun LEGO® ǀ Disney and Pixar ‘Up’ House (43217). The set that everyone will be talking about includes a detailed section of the iconic house with a chimney and balloons, 2 LEGO minifigures, a LEGO dog figure, a wilderness explorer backpack and an adventure book.
Whats in the box?
The set has 598 pieces that combine to build the iconic balloon tethered house, a small garden side build, Carl Fredricksen and Russell minifigures, plus a Dug the dog figure. Im sure LEGO considered a bigger more expensive version of this set with a bigger house and more balloons, but I’m glad they went this way, two many sets of iconic movies are now £200+ UCS style sets.
This small set gives you all the important stuff from the move (minus Kevin) for about 50 quid. Is it expensive, yes, is it expensive for LEGO, no.
Mr Fredricksons House
The house itself is a relatively simple build with very little depth to it, making the inside space limited in terms of posing for photos or playing for kids. However the LEGO designers have done their best to pack in as many references as possible, mainly with stickers used for photos and paintings. The little red bird to represent the ornament they had in the film is a nice non stickered touch though.
From the outside, the simple build works as a really nice LEGO-fication of the Karl’s home in the film with detail like the porch nicely done.The colours are maybe slightly more muted in the film but not much more so it works well here with the bright yellows, greens and blues
As for the balloons, yes there are many more in the film, but I think we get just enough here to not compromise the build or the price.
I have Just met you and I love You
The 2 minifigures are excellently made. Both Karl nd Russel are spot on depictions with high quality prints.
The one negative is Russels legs which are the small un-posable legs which really need to go in my opinion. At least Karl has the medium legs that can be articulated.
They both have two facial expressions and their own accessories. Russel has his wilderness backpack and Karl has his walking stick. A minifigure roller skate piece used to replace the four tennis balls, not a terrible compromise for what would have been a very specific new mold.
Dug the Dog is simple but effective part with no articulation as is standard for animals of this size fro LEGO.The print captures his expression well enough and he comes with a squirrel to get excited about.
There is no Kevin representation, perhaps they could have disposed of the side build and given us a brick built bird, but I tend not to be a fan of brick built creatures at minifig scale anyway. So for me, I’m content theres no big bird, I much prefer dug of course
Final Thoughts
A perfectly nice tribute to the house from the movie with good minifigures. The lack of depth doesn’t really matter from a display perspective, it clearly looks like its inspiration when its sitting on the shelf.
I hope LEGO keeps giving us more sets at this price point with all the main movie chargers in that one set.
FREETHEFIGURES 