After already taking a look at a few of the new 2023 LEGO® Polybags range, it’s time for the second part of my hands-on look at more of the latest promotional minisets. These new sets are also from online retailer Brick-a-brac and some of them are also available from selected Tesco stores. Look out for the usual boxes filled with a selection of different sets. The ones I’m looking at today include more from LEGO City and Friends, along with Technic, NINJAGO and Creator 3-in-1. Both the Creator and NINJAGO sets also offer alternative builds, using instructions found here.
30639: Dog Park and Scooter
In all honesty, this is a rather pointless polybag. It doesn’t really offer much in terms of building apart from the small grassy plate and tree. The rest of the set is merely a minifigure, a scooter and a husky dog, plus a blank butterfly. None of the parts are rare or difficult to locate in other sets. It feels more like it should be one of those smaller sets found in LEGO magazines than it does in a polybag.
30634: Friendship Flowers
The Friends polybags often feature buildable items not really connected to the wider theme and quite a few of them have been inspired by flowers. The set includes a small blue pot and three different buildable flowers. The use of recoloured candle sticks for these stalks offers a great finish to each flower. Each flower features a different style build and the colouring of each, combines nicely with each other.
30655: Forklift with Pallet
It’s been a whilst since I’ve built a Technic set but this is a great reminder of just how impressive Technic elements can be in creating functional models. The forklift might only be a tiny set, but it has a great feature in which you turn the pole with the light on it and it causes the forklift to raise or lower. The set also features a pallet, although the forks can’t go lower enough to pick them up. This is one of the better polybags and a great introduction to LEGO Technic.
30637: Animal Tray and Bag Tag
LEGO DOTS may be on the way out but the humble polybag is still promoting it. This set features a buildable tray, styled to look like an animal of some sort. It has the look of a fox about it, but it’s difficult to place exactly what animal it’s meant to be. It is joined by a white bag tag place, which also has a unique clasp ring. Both of these pieces can be decorated with the various DOTS tiles included in the set. These feature a mix of shapes and colours but none of them features any print detail.
30641: Panda
Creator 3-in-1 sets have the unique ability to be built into three different models. The lead model for this set is a cute panda bear, complete with bamboo shots. It does look a little awkward, depending on how you look at it, but I quite like it. You can use the same elements to create a orca whale and penguin. All three builds manage to capture the look of their various animals. The best of them is certainly the panda. Instructions for the alternate builds can be found here.
30649: Ice Dragon Creature
This is the only polybag released this year for the NINJAGO theme, so far. It’s a mini version of Zane’s Ice Dragon Creature set, released at the start of the year. Obviously, the smaller scale of the set means some of the detail is lost, but it still contains quite a few features of the larger set. That includes the ability to build the set as a dragon or a mech. The same elements can be used to create either build, with the alternate instructions available online via the LEGO Instructions page, which can be found here.
