The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part 70840 Welcome to Apocalypseburg! First Impressions

A panel of LEGO experts has assembled, not to devise apocalypse contingency plans, but to take a first look at The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part 70840 Welcome to Apocalypseburg!

The big one is here! The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part theme is packed with desirable sets already, but now, the ultimate plaything has been officially announced – 70840 Welcome to Apocalypseburg! With a bunch of images available to pore over, Daniel, Jme and Graham have taken out magnifying glasses to see what details they can discern and decide whether this set seems to use 3,178 pieces well.

Jme

When the first images of The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part sets started trickling in, I was impressed. It is great to see such a variety of designs, as well as a clear vision of integrating “boys” and “girls” models into a single theme. There was already a lot to be excited about, but 70840 Welcome to Apocalypseburg! ups the ante.

While massive, high price point sets are fairly common among licensed themes, they have only recently started making appearances from in-house themes. Both 70620 NINJAGO City and 70657 NINJAGO City Docks are phenomenal sets, and 70840 Welcome to Apocalypseburg! looks to be trying to tap into the same sense of grand scale and complex design.

From a builder’s standpoint, I can’t wait to see the instruction book. That crumbling Statue of Liberty looks fantastic, but also potentially tricky to explain. I am sure there will be a lot of interesting techniques going on, and some creative ways of conveying them to folks building the set.

While I am sure this home base will have its own context within the movie, it is also rife for modding. I’m sure it will be no time before we start seeing fan models turning this into builds from the likes of Planet of the Apes (which was obviously an inspiration), Fallout, Mad Max, or a host of other post-apocalyptic properties. I am sure a fair number of adult builders will pick this up as a massive parts pack.

This looks to be a well designed, unique and welcome addition to The LEGO Movie 2 theme. Hopefully the movie does well as to help ensure these sets get the attention they deserve.

Daniel

The LEGO Group has done it again. Bar none, my favourite set from The LEGO Movie was 70810 Metalbeard’s Sea Cow. Now with the second, my must-have product is again the set at the pinnacle of the price point ladder. Oh, my poor, poor wallet.

This set taps a genre which used to make a regular appearance in LEGO themes but fell out of favour thanks in large part to Star Wars – the home base. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, especially in the sci-fi heavy themes like Space, Aquazone, and Alpha Team, bases were major sets. Space themes regularly switched year by year, with capital ships and bases trading top billing, and almost every faction had one of some size. They were fantastic fun to play with, especially when they were large. Unfortunately, the reliance on vehicle based playsets has made bases, and especially proper self-contained bases, relatively rare nowadays. We have seen a few attempts at Hoth in Star Wars, and several Agents sets were billed as “mobile bases”, but something like 6983 Ice Station Odyssey or Blacktron I’s 6987 Message Intercept base have not been seen in decades.

70840 Welcome to Apocalypseburg! taps all those same buttons for me. Huge and detailed, it is the perfect centrepiece for any The LEGO Movie 2 display or child’s storyline. I love that the set re-creates the tipped Statue of Liberty at this scale and included so many shout outs to what we have seen of the film in trailers. This set will be a must have for me.

Graham

The whole point of getting three people to comment on a set is for diversity of opinion, yet here is a third viewpoint offering nothing but praise for this set. The LEGO Group really does have a habit of pulling it out of the bag for the movie releases, and 70840 Welcome to Apocalypseburg! is a prime example of that.

Back when the first modular building was released, 10182 Café Corner, it was apparent that the team in Billund had figured out that adults wanted toys not too dissimilar to the ones that children did. But adults’ hands are bigger. Adults have been jaded by life. So the modular buildings came along, offering buildable dolls’ houses in scale with minifigures – they were not statues, they were not purely for display, they were playthings.

It feels like 70840 Welcome to Apocalypseburg! follows that same thread. The old Kenner Ghostbusters Firehouse or Batman Batcave, from the 1980s and 1990s respectively, feel a bit small today. So the LEGO Group comes along with more than 3,000 pieces to make a massive playset that will make any adult feel like an eight year old. What a glorious time it is to be a LEGO fan.

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part 70840 Welcome to Apocalypseburg! will be available from January 16, 2019 exclusively at shop.LEGO.com.

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