The LEGO® Build Your Own Adventure books are a fun combination of inspirational builds weaved to together with a basic story and best of all they are a source of exclusive mini-builds. Every year there have been different titles based a various LEGO play themes. This years offerings include books based on NINJAGO, which I reviewed a few days ago and Disney Princess, which is the focus of this review. As well as the book and exclusive LEGO mini-builds, the Build Your Own Adventure titles this year also include a poster and bookmarks. Let’s take a closer look at the last of DK Books new Autumn releases, before the clock strikes midnight.
Product Description
An inspirational book with bricks, packed with more than 50 ideas and enthralling story starters to encourage children to build, play and learn all about the wonderful world of LEGO® Disney Princess.
The book features five chapters, each telling the story of a different Disney Princess. Get ready to escape from Ursula with The Little Mermaid, play in the castle gardens with Belle, build a spinning wheel with Sleeping Beauty, explore the mountains with Mulan and visit the village fair with Cinderella. The book comes with a LEGO Disney Princess mini-doll and bricks to build an exclusive model that features throughout the adventure.
- Book Title: LEGO Disney Princess Build Your Own Adventure
- Publisher: DK Books
- Pages: 80
- LEGO Elements: Exclusive Cinderella Mini-doll & Minibuild Set
- RRP: £19.99
- ISBN: 9780241318638
- Availability: General release
The Book
Inside the slipcase you’ll find a book and a slim cardboard box, in which you will find a polybag of LEGO elements, the poster and a pair of bookmarks. The bookmarks can be popped out of the outer cardboard and the poster is folded. This features a scene made up of Cinderella mini-doll characters. These extra goodies are a great addition to the overall package.
The book is split into five chapters, each of which are themed around other Disney Princesses, these include Mulan, Belle from Beauty & the Beast, Aurora from Sleeping Beauty and Ariel from the Little Mermaid, plus of course Cinderella. This allows each chapter to theme the inspirational builds around those characters and their locations.
One of the main questions I have seen in regards to these sort of books is, “where do I get the instructions?” and “which sets are the bricks in?” The simple answer is there aren’t any instructions or specific sets needed to create the builds shown in this book. They are there to inspire you to get creative with your own collection of elements. Of course, you’ll definitely have many of the bricks and pieces needed should you have numerous Friends, Elves or Disney sets, but even if you don’t have the certain elements shown in the books build, just use what you have.
The inspirational builds and the minibuild included with the book, have been created by Tim Johnson, who just so happens to be the creator of the excellent LEGO site New Elementary. Tim has used his knowledge of parts to create a varied array of builds throughout the book. I like that the inspirational builds aren’t too complex and in keeping with the play theme they are based upon.
The Mini-doll & Minibuild Set
As with previous Build Your Own Adventure books, this one also includes an exclusive minibuild, along with a Cinderella mini-doll. The minibuild is an quint little carriage, which maintains the same aesthetics as the range of the LEGO Disney Princess range. Mixing pastel colours often found in the Friends and Disney sets, with a splash of pearl gold pieces.
The use of parts is fantastic and I especially like the flashes of trans pink, embedded with the pale blue, purple and white pieces. The flourish of gold pieces tie the whole thing together to create a carriage fit for the ball.
Cinderella is certainly one of the most popular of the Disney Princesses, with six different sets featuring the character. As you can see Cinderella is in the same mini-doll style as the Friends characters. This version is identical to the version of Cinderella featured in set 41152: Cinderella’s Dream Castle.
Overall
The LEGO Disney Princess theme may have an extremely limited appeal, compared to other LEGO themes, but it’s still a great little book. I’d said it would appeal more to the fans of Disney than general LEGO fans. The way the book is set out, makes it easy to follow and the images do a decent enough job of showing off some of the things you could build with your own LEGO bricks. The minibuild is really fun to build and makes great use of parts. It instantly looks like a piece of the Disney universe. LEGO Disney Princess Build Your Own Adventure is available now from Amazon, WHSmith and all good book retailers.
This book was provided by DK Books for the purposes of review. The thoughts and opinions of the book reflect those of BricksFanz and not that of DK Books or the LEGO Group.
