Review: 10707 Red Creative Box
Posted by Huw,
The Entertainer toy shops in the UK never seem to be in a hurry to get new sets on the shelves but now, finally, my local branch has a decent selection.
Among them, the four new Classic creative boxes caught my eye, not only because they were bright and colourful but also because of their price: £5.
Now that Mixels are no more there's a dearth of sets available at pocket money prices so I bought one to see whether they are worth a look when you need a quick, cheap, LEGO fix. I chose 10707 Red Creative Box because it comes with new eye tiles.
Box and contents
The most noticeable thing about the sets is the size of the box which, at 7.5cm deep, does not have the same proportions as most others.
Inside there are two bags of parts and an instruction manual.
Instructions
If you've already glanced at the instructions at LEGO.com you will have seen that they are impressive, and in many ways unexpected for such a small set aimed at young children.
First, there's a page which succinctly outlines the history of LEGO products:
Then, a page about the set's designer, Astrid Bonfante.
Further on, there are ideas for models to build when combining this set with the green one.
And, it's very welcoming to see that there are photos of other things that can be made with the pieces in the set. Creator sets used to have a lot inspiration like this but it was removed because of complaints from parents that instructions for the models shown weren't included as well. Let's hope they keep quiet this time!
The completed models
The 55 pieces build three models simultaneously: a windmill, racing car and a crab, which features a new eye print on a 1x1 tile (6173629 Flat Tile 1X1, Round, No. 62).
Verdict
I don't think that this set or the others will appeal AFOLs very much, unless you happen to need the parts in them. However they'll make excellent gifts, or pocket money purchases, for kids aged 4-5 that are just starting out with System parts.
It's great that they are not just a box of basic bricks, there's plenty of interesting shapes included as well, so even with just the 55 in this one there's a lot of scope to make some cool little models, as the picture above show.
The sets costs £4.99 in the UK and €4.99 in Europe. It does not appear to be available in North America yet.
A good impulse purchase? Yes I think so.
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38 comments on this article
To me the most noticeable thing about the sets is the fact that the box is tape sealed.
This is the only one I really want, but I hope they will make more with different colors!
I would love to get a castle one!
Ah where is my CREATOR CASTLE SET LEGO?
Those new eye pieces will be very useful for a Lego XJ9.
Nice review, feel tempted to buy the set.
I wonder about one thing:
"Creator sets used to have a lot inspiration like this but it was removed because of complaints from parents that instructions for the models shown weren't included as well."
Was this the case? Does it concern only Creator sets or does this actually explain why the alternative models from the back of the good old boxes have nowadays been removed?
Yes it's also the cause of that.
Wow, that is awesome! As soon as I see these sets, I'm gonna pick one (or more) up!
Looks great.
Seems a little on the expensive side considering the lack of specialized pieces, The size and sheer number of them, At what about 10p-pp it seems a tad excessive asking quite so much since there are no royalties to pay or anything like that.
Include a minifig and the price might make sense but no not for bricks alone, I can't be the only one with this opinion can I ?
These would be nice sets to have in the coffee table (our coffee table had baskets for storage below it), so one could fiddle around with them while watching television and such.
I do like the idea of the color specific creative boxes and appreciate the review. I suspect I'll get one of each color. That aside, I did think the crab model was a moc of meatwad from aqua teen hunger force holding cash initially. I wonder if I'm the only one.
Really interesting to see that instruction book, thanks so much for writing this Huw
Huw: "Yes it's also the cause of that."
I thought it was also because those alt models were not subjected to the same QA measures that TLG is famous for; when TLG restructured and tightened their processes as part of their financial crisis recovery back at the turn of the century, they decided ALL models would undergo quality testing, even alt models (hence the 3-in-1 sets). I can't remember where I heard it, but that explanation makes sense to me in a way that the' grumpy parents' story never did.
Probably a bit of both...
Two things I miss - alternative models on the back, and flaps on the boxes of the big sets. Man, those were the best. I guess these days all the cool scenes on the inside of the flap would just be online though.
Are those images stored in the database anywhere?
Me too. A shame that Rebrickable don't seem to have got the clue about presenting single-set remakes to people up-front. And LEGO's own Remakes site hasn't been updated beyond a few fairly weak fan alt-models from a narrow line-up of City sets.
Nice review, I for one love how it ties into the build able calendar and explores the LEGO roots in a fun way.
@huw, Any plans for a review of 10703-1: Creative Builder Box - at half the price per part and with a house theme it seems like a great AFOL offering? Or is it too mixed? Compared to 31035-1: Beach Hut at around same price it seems like a nice mix (but is it 500 or 400 pieces?)
Not at the moment but it looks like a cool set.
i bought the orange one a few weeks ago. it has some interesting parts like "plate 2x6" in light yellow and some yellowish orange pieces that i needed. they're worth the money (if you need any of the parts)
Is there any way to find out whether these sets will be available in the US or not? I believe a lot of the UK/EU January releases are coming in March (notably Star Wars), but it'd be nice to know for sure.
@ChicoCheco
If this is true, people are stupider than I thought.
The eyes look like they could be used in a brick built Mario or Jenny from My Life as a Teenage Robot.
It's a surprisingly high price-per-piece ratio, but the price point itself is clever - psychologically, £5 is the sort of ceiling a lot of people will have if they want to get a child a small gift or let them choose a toy, and the Mixels leave a big hole in the low-priced Lego set market.
I love what they do with the leaflet; the designer info is nice to have and the ideas remind me of the leaflets you used to get in packets of Plasticine when I was kid - they'd show all sorts of flights of fancy and the fact you obviously couldn't build all of them from one packet of clay strips didn't matter to me at all. It was the spur to the imagination that counted.
@paulmison: My guess would be March 1st (and of course earlier than that for some stores). Given that the 2017 creator $5 sets are 4.99 in the UK (closest set type I could think of), my best guess is $4.99.
You know, the alternate models on the back and sides of boxes is absolutely one of the things I miss about Lego. I loved how they used to do that.
Cute little set, but the best part about the review is that every image is click-expandable on site instead of most of them linking to Flickr. Great improvement!
Astrid's motto is a tough one to beat!
"...Removed because of complaints from parents that instructions for the models shown weren't included." Add me to the list of the intrigued! Do you have an article or reference to more info about this, or do you recall when this was noted? Every time I look at old boxes & instruction manuals with alternate builds I long for their return as not only were many of the builds enjoyable to look at, they established & reinforced the notion that using parts to make something other than the box-front build is a good thing. Counter to popular intuition, I hear of too many kids who truly believe LEGO kits are only "supposed" to be made one very specific way, seeing even the slightest deviation as somehow bad or wrong. These kids actually need a perceived authority figure (like LEGO itself) to tell them originality & creativity is not only acceptable, but encouraged.
@The Rancor: It sure beats my motto: Sure, eat cake for lunch.
A cute little impulse buy. May pick this up if I find it.
Saw these in a shop at the beginning of the month and I think they are a very clever line for LEGO to put out.
They just fall into the pocket money category, they do a lot to go against the misconceptions about how there are "too many specialist parts"/"only sets and not basic bricks like we had in my day" nonsense that people like to spout. Also by being themed for colours I can imagine AFOLs buying them if they need a large amount of certain colours - though most likely at a bit of a discount.
Interested to see what if these lead to some specific colour themed larger boxes to get better value too.
I ordered all four sets as soon as they were available online. I just had to have them, no idea why, they just appealed to me, and I wasn't disappointed. They weren't expensive, the booklet is great, the parts are great, the colours are great - if you don't want these sets for yourself, they're a really nice gift for children. I can only recommend them. :)
@theJang
"Counter to popular intuition, I hear of too many kids who truly believe LEGO kits are only "supposed" to be made one very specific way, seeing even the slightest deviation as somehow bad or wrong"
I noticed that as well. I gave my godchildren a big box of Lego parts, pick-a-brick stuff and parts I didn't need in my collection, lots of special parts - a Lego Potpourri so to speak. They emptied the box onto the floor, looked pretty lost, and then they asked me for the instruction manual and what to build with that. I told them that there isn't one, that this isn't like one of the sets they usually get. It took them a while but eventually they just started building and came up with their own creations. I was still surprised that this not being a regular set had been an issue at all.
@theJANG, I heard it first-hand from a LEGO designer, who I probably shouldn't name here, some years ago. He was talking specifically about the first Creator sets, like 2003's 4101 Wild Collection, that had more inspirational photos than instructions. By 2006 or so they'd been removed.
@Arlis Thanks for sharing your first-hand experience.
@Huw Thanks! Always fantastic to get insight from the inside.
I remember when I was younger, I was always a bit bummed that instructions weren't included for some of those alternate models on the old castle sets, especially Black Monarch Castle. But it was never really a pain point for me; I always liked seeing those inspirational images. When I came out of my dark ages and started buying the Creator and Designer sets, all those alternate models were one of my favorite parts of the instruction booklets. I always assumed they got rid of those to save time and money. Pretty lame that people complained about that enough to get them removed.
Wow. Like someone said above, it really shows how important it is to show kids that not everything has only one right way to play or build - some kids are going to prefer building the set's official model every time, but I would really want kids to know that it's equally fine if they want to make their own models up. I got such immense pleasure as a child from just dumping the bucket of pieces on the floor and being inspired by the shapes, or figuring out how to create models related to my interest; I would never want a kid to feel it's not allowed, or that it's too daunting to try....
Spotted these in TRU yesterday...... Were they sand green parts i spied in the green box?
My daughter really wanted this set the other day when we saw it. There were several other sets she wanted too, so we didn't get it. But I can tell she would love it. She is all about just building random shapes that make no sense at all. She loves minifigs but would rather have a pile of random bits plus a fig on the side rather than a specific city set or whatever. I think maybe a valentine pressy might be a good excuse to get one!