Toy Review: The Lego Movie Trash Chomper (Lego)

I think everyone initially suspected that the Lego Movie was just a ploy for Lego to print money.  I mean, what kind of movie could they possibly make about Lego bricks, anyway?

A damn fine one, as it turns out.

Kudos to Lego for making a great movie (and probably surprising most of us).  But, I gotta digress here, because this isn’t a review about the movie.  Nope.  I won’t put you through that.  Just do yourself a solid and go see the movie.  The reason I brought you here today is to talk at length about the Lego Movie Trash Chomper set.

Before the movie’s release, Lego unleashed a plethora of movie based sets.  Far more than their usual new line roll out.  Actually, probably too many to choose from, if I’m sticking to my vow of honesty.  And beings that I hadn’t seen the movie when I initially picked up this set, I had a difficult time deciding which set to get.

TOO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM LEGO!!!!

I managed to narrow the selection down between the fore-mentioned Chomper set and the Ice Cream Machine set.  After careful deliberation, I ended up with the garbage truck.  Which, at first glance, probably wasn’t the wisest of decisions for me to make.  See, I already own the Lego City Garbage Truck (rather… I used to own it, until my son took it over and god knows where it is now).  So picking up this set does seem pretty redundant of your friendly neighborhood jman.

But…look at this set!  Look at it!  The thing that sold me on this set?  The teeth on that truck…it’s classic!  It’s simple.  It’s Lego.  It’s clever.

Oh…and the chef.  The random chef minifigure sold me, too.

Part of the cleverness of the set is that you can build it as the Trash Truck OR the transmogrified Trash Chomper.   My choice?  C’mon!  Isn’t it obvious, by now?

Lego has always included pictures of alternate models you can build with their sets.  No instructions (usually), just pictures of alternate sets.  The key is to use your imagination (good luck with that).  The alternate model for Trash Chomper set being…the Trash Truck.  Lego did, in this case, include the instructions to build the Trash Truck.  And, as I understand it, this version of the Trash Truck is superior to the Lego City Trash Truck that I already own, but have no idea where my son is keeping.

Either way, I ain’t building the alternate Trash Truck model.

Why?  Because I am President Business.  I follow the instructions and build the intended model!  I do not deviant from standard operating procedures!  Now, for reasons unknown, I don’t go as far as gluing the sets together (I really should because some of those sets can be a bit fragile), but…I don’t take them apart once I build them, either.

So, if you want to know if the Trash Truck model is wicked cool, I don’t know for sure.  I can lie to you, and break my vow of honesty, but I don’t want to do that to us.  So, I can only assume that the Trash Truck model is indeed wicked cool.

Who we kidding, though?  That’s not why you’re gonna buy this set…

Chomp.  Chomp.  Chomp.

Once again, I have to hand it to the Lego Designers/Master Builders.  How they cleverly use the same parts for the Trash Truck to create the Trash Chomper…is beyond me.  Putting the set together is a lot of fun.  Seeing how the designers use the pieces in unexpected ways still amazes me.  With a turn of a knob (and using two gears and a few misc parts) the jaws of the Chomper open and close.  The wheels on the side of the Chomper just make sense.  Every part has a home.

It’s like a flippin Transformer!

The price points for the movie sets haven’t been too unreasonable, considering.  The Trash Chomper was $29.99.  So was the Ice Cream Machine, as well as a few other sets in and around that price range.  What I’m trying to say here is there’s no reason for you to not live up to Lego’s expectations and buy yourself some of these sets.

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