Review: Welcome to Apocalypseburg

NOTE: This set was provided to me by The LEGO® Group for review purposes. However, the provision of sets does not guarantee a favorable review. I will use my usual rating system, and provide my honest opinion.

While I have reviewed many sets in the past, Welcome to Apocalypseburg marks the first set that I will review which I received from the LEGO® Ambassador Network (LAN) AFOL Engagement team. It is also the first set that I am reviewing because you guys voted for it! When I got my first shipment from the LAN, I sent out a poll on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter asking which set you wanted to see reviewed first. Facebook users really wanted to see the Hogwarts Great Hall from Harry Potter, however, Instagram and Twitter overwhelmingly voted for Welcome to Apocalypseburg. Fear not Facebook fans, the Great Hall is coming, just not this week. This week, we will take a look at the largest set in the LEGO® Movie 2 theme. As always, if you are curious about how I generate scores in this review, you can click here to read about my rating system.

SET SUMMARY

NAME: Welcome to Apocalypseburg
SET #: 70840
THEME: The LEGO® Movie 2
COST: $399.99 CAD
BRICK COUNT: 3178
MINIFIGURES: 12
RELEASE DATE: February 6, 2019

SUMMARY REVIEW: 91%

VALUE: 93% (Good cost per brick, LOADS of build time.)

BUILD: 90% (Amazing build, just a couple of nit-picks here and there.)

MINIFIGURES: 80% (Awesome detail, passable brick:fig.)

ENTERTAINMENT: 100% (So much fun to be had with this set.)

REVIEW

VALUE: 93%

Apocalyseburg costs $399.99 in Canada. With 3178 parts, you are looking at a cost per brick of $0.13. That is a little bit below my current average of $0.14/brick. While this is a good value, it is not the excellent value that you normally get with larger sets. I rate the value per brick for this set at 86%.

In terms of build time, I built Apocalypseburg over a period of five days. In total, I spent 10 hours and 23 minutes (623 total minutes) assembling this set. With a price tag of $399.99, that translates into $0.64 per minute of build time, which is actually pretty good. I rate the build time for Apocalypsburg at 100%. Averaging this score with the cost-per-brick score gives this set an overall value rating of 93%.

BUILD: 90%

There is a lot to love about Apocalypseburg. There are fun details squeezed into just about every corner. I love how the whole thing has the look of stacked up shipping containers. On the ground level, you find a jail cell, a small gym (with punching bag and bench press), an outdoor shower station, the Coffee Unchained coffee shop, and Chainsaw Dave’s surf shop. The highlights are Coffee Unchained and the surf shop that was not. The surf shop is a funny touch considering Apocalypseburg is found in a desert wasteland. But, Dave’s shop features surfboards none-the-less, and a beat up old surfer van. Coffee Unchained houses gas pumps to fill coffee cups, and has a rat in the display case. I really like the inclusion of this coffee shop not only because it was featured in the movie, but also because it provides continuity with the City theme. Many City sets in recent years have featured “The Coffee Chain” and Coffee Chain employees. This set features the slum version of that brand. Below are a few more shots of the ground level of Apocalypseburg.

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Moving up a level in Apocalypseburg brings you to a barber shop, an apocalypse gear store, a platform made from Lady Liberty’s tablet, a small diner above the gym, and a workshop. The barber shop has some equipment in it that makes it seem as though it doubles as a tattoo parlor. It also has a reclining chair. Both it and the store next door are converted shipping containers. The “diner” on the back side of the set is really just some odds and ends placed on the roof of the gym, and doesn’t really strike me as much of a eatery. You can see some images of the second level of Apocalypseburg below.

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Moving on up again, above the two shops you have another shipping container. This one appears to be Lucy’s humble abode. On top of the bed, you find her relic hunter from the first film. On the walls, she has hung pictures of Emmet and Unikitty, and her binoculars from the film. Under the bed, Lucy has hidden a few mementos from days gone by. There is a picture of ex-boyfriend, Batman, as well as a Lucy & Batman brick. She also her former band poster stored away there, and a black sharpie to color her hair. Again, the thought and detail that went into the tiny corner of the set made it another highlight for me. On the roof of her shipping crate home, Lucy has a lookout.

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The rest of the set is the toppled over Lady Liberty. For the most part, the interior of the statue is just empty space. I understand that this was necessary for structural reasons, but I still found myself wishing that something could have been done to make that interior accessible and usable. The exterior of the statue is wonderfully detailed though. There are a series of ladders that lead all the way up from the base level to a lookout by the torch. Inside Lady Liberty’s head there is also another room for the Where’s-My-Pants guy to call home. He has a poster on the wall from his glory days as a film star.

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Looking at the build for this set overall, there is very little that I do not like. The only complaint that I have is lack of access into the interior of Lady Liberty. But, I am not sure that there was much to be done about that because this set still needs a sturdy structure. I’m not crazy about the diner either, but it is better than empty space, and there is so much else going with this set that I can hardly complain about that. Apocalypseburg looks amazing and there is an incredible amount of detail that has gone into it. I rate it at 9/10 (90%).

MINIFIGURES: 80%

There are 12 Minifigures that come with Welcome to Apocalypseburg. All of them come with front and back torso printing, and front leg printing. Oddly enough, Chainsaw Dave is a throwback to the days when two-toned legs were not a thing. He has shorts printed on the front and sides of his legs, but not on the back. I’m not a big fan of that look, but what can you do?

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Nine of the characters have double-sided faces, and the three that don’t have the back side of their head visible, so it is understandable that they would not have an alternate face. All Minifigures have some sort of hair or headpiece as well, and six even have arm printing. Based on design alone, I would give them 147/180 (82%). However, Apocalypseburg is loaded full of accessories. Too many to even list here. You get a lot of stuff in this kit, and all of that easily brings the design score up to 100%.

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Apocalypseburg comes with some great characters. But, as a DC Comics fan, this set was a hardcore, must have because of Apocalypseburg Batman, Suicide Squad Harley Quinn, and Apocalypseburg Green Lantern. Batman can also be acquired through the Battle Ready Batman and Metalbeard set (click here to read my review of it), however the Apocalypseburg version is slightly more detailed. This version of Batman comes with arm printing, whereas the less expensive version does not. Green Lantern is an exclusive. We have seen other variants of Green Lantern before, but this one comes with a whole new print. Then there is Harley, who is also exclusive to this set. There have been many Harley Quinn Minifigures in the past, but this one is based on the Suicide Squad movie look, since the character was voiced by Margot Robbie in the LEGO® Movie 2.  These Minifigures are a real highlight of this set for me.

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12 Minifigures in a set containing 3178 pieces give you a brick-to-Minifigure ratio of 265:1. That is not great by any means, but it is also not horrible for a set this size. Usually larger sets come with pretty bad brick-to-fig ratios, so the fact that this one pulls off a pass is pretty good. Apocalypseburg earns 60% as its ratio score. Averaging this with the design score yields an overall Minifigure grade of 80%.

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ENTERTAINMENT: 100%

Ladders, chains, and compartments galore, there is so much going on in Apcalypseburg. I have had this set sitting on my dining room table for a week now, and I still can’t get enough of just looking at it. It is an amazing set from an adult collector’s perspective. I also think that kids will love this. I suspect really young children will have a hard time building it by themselves, but with a little help from mom or dad (or both), the end result would be hours of entertainment. I would have just died for a play set like this as a kid. The Black Falcon’s Fortress that I love so much, or even the Islanders’ Enchanted Island that gave me countess hours of play pale by comparison. Welcome to Apocalypseburg is a solid 100% in terms of entertainment.

OVERALL: 91%

Welcome to Apocalypseburg is is epic. The set has a really high price tag, but you are really getting your money’s worth in terms of design, build-time, exclusive Minifigures, and entertainment. The value per brick also good, though not the phenomenal, single-digit number you might expect from a set this size. This set has given me hours of photography, and who knows how many more of simply exploring and being amazed by the whole thing. This set is definitely worth the purchase, and I highly recommend it.

As always, I would like to hear your thoughts on Welcome to Apocalypseburg in the comments below. If you like the content at True North Bricks, I would love it if you followed me here on WordPress (click the “follow” option at the bottom of the page), Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter for regular updates.

Until next time,

-Tom

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