Take A Look at Disney

3/22/11

Disney & Lego



If there is one thing that brings me as much joy as Disney, it would have to be Lego bricks. Before we start, I would like to adress a pet peeve of mine, there is no "s" at the end of Lego, when you  say Lego you are referring to the brand but if you wish to discuss the pieces, then you wish to talk about the bricks and finally if you wish to talk about the little Lego peopl, they are minifigures.   Moving on as I was saying Lego is a toy that can take me back to my childhood and to happier times. As matter of fact right now, I'm working on a new Lego set that I bought this weekend.   Anyways as we all know Lego is no stranger to using already established brands to make sets off of and one of the very first  Lego toy based on an established brand was... 


This Wooden Pull Toy made to look Like Pluto




Now I'll understand if some of you might find this confusing because you probably beleived that the Star Wars Lego sets were the first to be based off a brand. Techinally they were the first plastic Lego sets to be off an already establsihed brand. As you see at the time of this toy's release Lego had not yet entered the realm of making plastic toys.  Enough of the history lesson. Were here to talk about toys. Now I'll run down each set and give my thoughts on them.




Where to start about the set for the youngest Lego builders out there, I give Disney's Baby Mickey & Minnie


Lego Baby



This here set was was part of the Lego Baby line. This line served as percursor to the Duplo sets as these toys were meant for infants and I actually like the idea of making Lego sets for children that young as it can help them to develop their hand-eye coordiation at an early age. If there is one problem, I have with this set it is the fact that Mickey and Minnie are babies. while I have nothing against baby toys using these two characters, I always  get an uneasy feeling when I see anything from the Disney Baby line (I'll save that for later) part of is because I don't feel as though you need to make these characters babies to make them enjoyable for such a young age group. That is just my opinion, however I do like how flat the pieces. Sadly, I beleive that Lego discontinued the Baby line. Tht is a shame because even the youngest of Disney fans need to experince the joys of Lego in their lives.   Next up we head to the realm of Duplo.


Duplo

Three major Disney brands have tunred into Duplo sets, they include Winnie The Pooh, Toy Story and Cars.  100 acre Woods was the first of these three to receive the Duplo treatment. The Duplo sets are step above the Baby line and they are normally meant for the preschool age kids. Now let's head to the 100 acre Woods to take a look at Pooh Bear based Duplo set


This Duplo acheived quite an accomplishment because  1999 ans 2001, 15 sets on Pooh & his freinds were released. Making Pooh the longest lasting prouduct  under the Disney licenese and it appears to be making a comeback because in my Lego Store, I saw some new Pooh Bear Duplo sets in the Duplo corner.  There is not much I can say about this set other than this is the perfect Disney introduction toy. There are lovable characters and all kids should know who Pooh is. Plus these sets use very bright and vibrant colors. These keep the kid's attention as it is like eye candy.  Moving on to the next se we head to the world of Andy's room to look at the Toy Story Duplo sets.





This set here is based on the train from the opening sequence from Toy Story 3.  This is a fun little set. Though, I do find it odd that Lego decided to make a set of toys based on characters that are already toys. Even still that is pretty cool and this is fun and simple.  There are many great sets here. The only downside to the Duplo Toy Story sets is that they do not feature any of  the other characters except for Bullseye and the Aliens. Although we are not done yet as we will return to Andy's room later on in this post. Next up we are taking a drive to Radiator Springs as we take a look at the Duplo sets of Cars.
This here set as you can see is based on Mack, the Jon Ratzneberger character from Cars. If there is one thing that I have noticed about the Cars line. It is that they are more character based and this made seem hard to explain but I believe part of the reason is because this is a set based on a movie without any human characters it needs to rely more on the Cars.  This may sound silly but that is just how it appears and from my understanding more Cars sets will be released around the release of Cars 2 and I may not be right but some of them may be part of the regular Lego series. If it that is the case, Cars will become the second Disney line to have series in both the Duplo and regular line alongside Toy story. We now leave the Duplo line and go one step up in the world of Lego.


Lego (Main Series)

Now with the main series, things can get a bit tricker with name of the line and labeling of the sets. As you see this used to be called Lego system but that name was dropped and now it is just Lego. The first Lego set I wish to talk about is one featuring the Mouse himself. That's right a Mickey Mouse Lego Set.




This Mickey Mouse pictured here is actually a set that  I own.  You would not beleive my excitement when I opened my monthly Lego catalouge and saw in there that they were now selling Mickey Mouse Lego sets. To me that was the coolest thing ever even cooler than the Lego Star Wars sets as I'm a bigger Mickey fan. Sure I may have been above the intended age range for these sets but that brings to something I would like to like say.  Who cares, what the intended age is? You see, I have bought many Lego sets that were mant for people younger than me but I still enjoyed them. The Mickey Mouse sets are what I would like to transition sets as they are not quite Duplo material nor are they quite part of the main series.  The reason I say that they are not part of the main series is because of the size of the characters. They are a tad bigger than the regular minifigures. If there is one complaint I have about the Mickey Mouse sets is besides Mickey, the only other characters featured were Minnie and Pluto. Now I don't why but there was Goofy nor ay Doanld sets ever sold. Sadly the Mickey Mosue set has been discontinued. This is one set I would love to see make a comeback but this time include Doanld and Goofy.  Why don't we return to Andy's room to take a look at some Toy Story sets.






Now as just with the Mickey Mouse sets, the Toy Story story could be considered transition sets but at the same time, these sets are part of the main Lego series. While the Duplo Toy story lacks in character, this one actually makes up for that fact as it includes Woody, Buzz, Rex, Ham, Jessie and the Aliens. Now sadly they could not include Potato Head and Slinky Dog as the rights to those characters are owned by another toy company.  Now there are many sets that I want to show here such as the first one pictured here. This is a a giant Buzz Lightyear set. He is hard to find but if you do find them, keep a lookout for Evil Emperor Zurg. As there is a Zurg Lego model out there. The next set I wish to show you is a Lego set based on a Toy Story character who happens to be my favorite Toy Story character.













This here set is based on RC, who for some reason is my favorite Toy Story character. This set here is actually based on the chase scene from the first Toy Story movie.  Although I do not own this set, this does take me to my childhood as I used to own a Buzz, Woody and RC toy set that came from Burger King. The next set that I have chosen is based on the Pizza Planet truck.












Now this is another cool set right here it is based upon the Pizza Planet Truck. Even though the box says Toy Story 3, I believe this set was inspired by the Pizza Planet truck scene from Toy Story 2. This is perhaps one of my favorite sets in the Toy Story line becasue I have always liked the Pizza Planet truck and I guess it is neat to see that there is a Pizza Planet truck that you can build.  Next up is Prince of Persia.




I must be honest I never saw this film and I had never heard of the game until the release of the film. Even still this is nice looking set and in some way it reminds of both thier Adventurers set featuing my second favoirte minifigure, Johnny Thunder and of thier Indinda Jones line. There is not much I can say about this set except the arguement could be made that this is first offical video game based set from Lego even if it is based off of the film.





Here is a picture of Johnny Thunder and for our last set we go abord the Blcak Pearl to meet up with Captain Jack Sparrow.




This set has not been released yet but according to Mtv.com, this set will be relased around same time as Pirates 4.  This is a set that I'm excited about this just seems like an awesome idea and part of me wonders why Lego waited so long to make a Pirates set. Okay, Mega Blok oringinally had the rights to the POTC line but I guess they lost it and thank goodness because Lego can finally make some cool sets. If that isn't enough, we will be getting the first Lego Diseny video game from this line with Lego Pirates of The Carribean: the Videogame.  Here is a trailer for said game.






There you have it all the Lego sets based on Disney lines. But this will not be the end as I have heard rumors that Lego may soon go to the Grid to make Tron Lego sets. Now I don't know much about Tron but with the release of the sequel and the surge in popularity, these would seel well and I could see this leading to another Disney Lego videogame.






There you go, I hope you enjoyed this and I say go pick up Lego sets if you want.
















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