Review: 70848 Systar Party Crew
Posted by CapnRex101,
Despite approaching the ominous Systar System with trepidation, several steadfast characters are quickly spellbound by Catchy Song. 70848 Systar Party Crew includes three such heroes and these exclusive minifigures appear excellent, featuring appropriately bright colours.
Stardust Benny seems especially interesting and attracted notable appreciation while on display at the LEGO House. That minifigure alone might be sufficient to justify purchasing this set for many LEGO fans, although MetalBeard and Unikitty should definitely not be overlooked.
Minifigures
LEGO has produced comparatively few Benny variants, despite his appearance in ten sets. Stardust Benny is accordingly appealing as this minifigure represents a significant departure from his standard design but maintains important features, such as his distinctive cracked helmet and the Classic Space emblem. The blue oxygen tanks strapped to this minifigure also remain unchanged.
However, this torso features some metallic silver decoration beside an attractive blue star. The dual-moulded legs look superb too, although comparing Benny's white boots with the printing on his torso demonstrates poor colour matching. I love the expressive double-sided head though and a pair of star-shaped glasses connect to the helmet, allowing them to be raised and lowered like a visor.
Disco Kitty seems even more outlandish, wearing enormous platform shoes which are formed using 2x1x2 slopes with printing on both sides. These look brilliant and replace white 1x1 plates that appear on the majority of Unikitty figures. The printed pink tail appears equally striking and two 1x3 bricks are supplied, featuring different facial expressions.
While her platform shoes are certainly distinctive, Disco Kitty's most remarkable feature is the unique feather boa! This fabric component feels incredibly soft and lacks a solid core, contrary to my original expectations. It looks fantastic and can easily hold its shape around Unikitty's neck, as demonstrated below, because the material adheres loosely to itself.
The Completed Model
Catchy Song compels characters in The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part to dance, hence this set contains a colourful dance floor which is simply constructed but looks good. I like the black speaker system as well, although those shown onscreen are significantly larger. Three lovely smoothies are also included, corresponding with 70847 Good Morning Sparkle Babies!
MetalBeard appears in several The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part sets but this variant, known as One-Man-Metal-Band seems most comparable to the version from 70810 MetalBeard's Sea Cow. The model measures 15cm in height and feels extremely tactile so is perfect for play. I love the combination of purple and pearl gold and the humorous replacement of MetalBeard's traditional weaponry with musical instruments is delightful.
The head features a new smiling expression while MetalBeard's famed beard is now pearl gold rather than pearl dark grey. His hat remains unaltered though and the articulated hooks are similarly familiar. These can reach the keyboard situated beneath MetalBeard's head and his body parts, comprising a bone and a red sausage, are kept inside a golden treasure chest.
Considerably less detail is visible on the back of the figure, although the colour scheme appears consistent and I like the textured clam shell element. Furthermore, a golden flag is attached here and MetalBeard's shoulder armour has been augmented with a record player on one side and a metallic silver 2x2 dish on the other. This component is particularly appealing and a spare is provided too!
An impressive musical instrument is connected to MetalBeard's left arm. The official set description suggests this is intended to represent a trombone but it most closely resembles a trumpet and looks reasonably realistic, including another metallic gold dish which forms the bell. The other hand seems slightly more conventional, featuring three articulated fingers and an opposable thumb so the figure can grip accessories.
Both arms include ball joints which provide an excellent range of motion and the legs are connected using similar parts. MetalBeard's idiosyncratic peg leg now features a trans-purple jewel and his other leg has been replaced with an attractive piano. This incorporates a new printed 1x4 tile which can also be found in 21319 Friends Central Perk, forming a minifigure-scale keyboard.
Overall
Countless fantastical characters populate The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part and 70848 Systar Party Crew excels in that regard, featuring exclusive versions of three notable heroes. Each variant differs dramatically from the standard designs, reflecting the garish Systar System environment, but these characters still capture the essential features of Benny, Unikitty and MetalBeard.
I am particularly pleased with One-Man-Metal-Band, who includes numerous interesting pieces, while Stardust Benny wears wonderful glasses. This set costs £17.99 or $19.99 which seems reasonable in my opinion, although others from The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part offer superior value so I would suggest waiting for a discount before purchasing this set.
I hope you have found this review informative. Let us know by liking this article and share your opinion of the set in the comments.
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29 comments on this article
This is such an amazing, or should I say...OUTRAGEOUS set!
That MetalBeard build is super fun. I’m digging Benny’s boots too.
great review
Yeah, that's a buy.
I want this Benny!
The piano tile is my favourite thing in this set. Will definitely need to get my hands on one or two
^ It's worth noting that this set alone comes with two of that printed tile.
I'm on the fence about getting this one. Getting several hundred hours of that song stuck in your head since the soundtrack came out does strange things to you...
Loving the piano tile, was wondering if it was a sticker so great to mention it, ta!
The keyboard tile and Benny are what made me bought this set! My full thoughts: https://youtu.be/iQPqbQF_FF4
This set is so packed with fun and colors, we like it! Great design for Metal Beard, the neo steam punk old pirate takes on his light clothes (filled with delightful details) to go into the party and that suits him so well. I really appreciate the expressions printed Benny's face, so cheerful. And Disco Kitty version is appreciated here even by non AFOL friends. In a few words this set is a for its size one of the best of the theme.
I don't recall if these were all CapnRex reviews, but I've noticed lately terms like "lurid" and "garish" being used for a bunch of what I'd consider fairly tasteful color schemes. The gold and purple of this set complement each other fairly well, for instance (much like they did on older sets like the wonderful Lunar Limo from the Space Police line). If anything, I'd describe a color scheme like this as "regal" or perhaps a little "showy", but far from "lurid" or "garish".
Personally when I think "lurid" I think more of a deliberately offputting color scheme, like the Bright Yellowish Green, Olive Green, Dark Red, and Sand Yellow of the alien ships from Galaxy Squad. In that case the color scheme, composed of a mix of hypersaturated and dingy colors in contrasting hues contributed to a creepy, borderline disgusting appearance that nonetheless felt like a good fit for the creepy bug vehicles it was used for, and still contrasted well with the clean whites and bold colors of the "good guy" vehicles.
@Lyichir- As a writer, things like that generally aren't what concerns people. My editor saves things like that till the end. Things like using the same word too many times generally urks people more than how something is described. Plus, this is a review written for free and not a bestselling book.
Nice review, @CapnRex! You and Huw do a good job with these reviews in my opinion!
@Lyichir - I would use the word 'garish' to describe colour schemes which combine multiple bright colours, including purple and gold. It can sometimes have negative connotations but not necessarily. This might be a regional difference between British and American English.
I will grab that keyboard tile on bricks n pieces.com looks cool...
One-Man-Metal-Band-Beard's colour scheme reminds me a lot of that Mixels band, the Mixies.
Love the set but Lil bit expensive for what you get, another Amazon sale purchase for me.
This was absolutely a day one buy! I freaking love Metalbeard, and the TLM2 theme has brought us several amazing builds for him. This one was certainly the most unique of the bunch, recolouring the guy from head to toe and adding a fun third face option for him! I love it!
Benny too was a welcome addition here. While it's genuinely surprising that they didn't include his new spaceship design in the theme, it was nice to get his glammed out Systar duds at least. The inclusion of his hearts face from his reaction to Watevra's song was full cute.
Unikitty was really the only outlier here. This set (along with much of the CMF line) feels like an accessory pack to the Party Bus. Chances are, most people who are into the characters party variants have grabbed the bus and already have Disco Kitty. It was nice to get an alternate face and her liylittle boa accessory though.
This is definitely on my list, its just a matter of actually finding a copy here in Australia (suggestions are it wont be comming to local retail so it will need to be ordered from Shop @ Home I think)
This song's gonna get stuck inside your this song's gonna get stuck inside your this song's gonna get stuck inside your HEEEEEAAAAAAADD!!!!
"Hey, is that Bruce Willis?"
That printed piano keys tile, tho...
Lurid, garish, and outlandish are definitely words I'd use to describe the Systar System. That's not to say that in a negative tone. The system is obviously a party place. That being said, this set just screams Elton John's Benny and the Jets as well as the 70s party atmosphere as a whole.
really fun build, i did so yesterday and lots of gold pieces which i love, plus Benny of course is the stand out...hope somehow a surplus of his glasses somehow make their way in the build-a-minifig kiosks at the Lego store lol they are seriously cool
The boa on Unikitty reminds me strongly of Scalia or Belville themes.
This is a good set, but I don't quite like character sets at this price point. For, maybe, 15€ it would have been awesome
Unikitty can get a boa but Batman couldn’t get a sparkle cape?!?!
"his body parts, comprising a bone and a red sausage, are kept inside a golden treasure chest"...
(repeats to self "I must not comment. I must not comment...)
I bought this set mainly for Benny.
@CaptainRex, @Lyichir: Aaah yes, colour. It is of course subjective, but I agree with @CaptainRex classification here. To me 'garish' has a bit of a negative connotation, but given the subject, that's quite alright. Interestingly, I would also say that the lunar limo is 'regal', but that is because the black is the most prominent colour. Not a fan of the brown bits showing at the back, though.
Remco.