Review: 10772:Mickey Mouse's Propeller Plane
Posted by benbacardi,
With the release of the new Mickey and Friends subtheme, LEGO announced an improved design to their 4+ range, intending to make it more accessible for the younger builders.
Huw sent me three of the sets to review, and I passed them all onto my daughter to build, who has recently turned five, to see how she would get on.
The smallest of the five sets in the line, 10772 Mickey Mouse's Propeller Plane, contains 59 parts in a compact box. Emptying the parts onto a blanket on the floor (her preferred building method!) my daughter got to work.
Minifigure
There's only one minifigure in the set, and it's everybody's favourite mouse, Mickey Mouse. Of the five sets in the theme, Mickey appears in all but one of them, and each time in a different outfit. This time, both Mickey's head and torso are unique; he's sporting a pair of flying googles, and wearing a traditional sheepskin flying jacket, similar to those worn by RAF pilots during WWII.
There's an impressive amount of detailing on both the front and the back. The jacket zips up to a fur-lined collar, and an insignia showing the iconic Mickey silhouette in front of a pair of wings is attached. There's the hint of a red scarf beneath the jacket, which continues onto the rear, along with the white fur of the collar.
Instructions
Starting with this range, LEGO have revamped the design of their instructions for sets aimed at their youngest target market. Gone are the small boxes that detailed the parts required for each step, and multiple steps are no longer shown on a page.
Instead, the left side of a double-page spread shows a pair of illustrated hands holding all parts needed for the step, and the right side shows where to place them on the model, with improved highlighting of the parts that are being added. The outline around the newly positioned parts seems thicker (to my eyes) and changes colour depending on what the most suitable colour for the surrounding may be. In the example below, it's green.
In talking to my daughter as she built the model, she told me that she much preferred these instructions as the hands were fun, and she could see what she needed to get first very easily. When I've watched her build sets before, she'd often not pick up enough pieces because she'd miss the tiny little "2x" next to the part in the box. This is no longer an issue with this new style; they're more verbose, but they're a vast improvement for the age group.
Interestingly, the steps are no longer numbered. I'm not sure of the reasoning behind removing those!
The Model
Before building the plane, a small maintenance rack and flag are constructed. They're very basic, with the rack holding a wrench and a bottle. The most interesting bit to me is the new snappily-named DESIGN ELEMENT, 3X4X2/3, NO. 1, which is essentially a 2x2 round tile two plates thick, with a pair of ears, forming the world-famous Mickey Mouse silhouette. There's one in each of the five sets in the range, and it'll be interesting to see if it has any use beyond the Disney theme.
The rest of the parts make up Mickey's propeller plane. The fuselage is predominantly red, with flame yellowish orange wings and blue highlights. It's a very Disney colour theme.
There's space behind the engine for Mickey to sit, and a pair of exhausts just behind the propeller. The wheels sit just below the wings, giving the plane a realistic upward tilt when stationary.
The only two printed parts in the set are a pair of 2x2 tiles printed with the same Mickey silhouette insignia that adorned Mickey's flying jacket. They're unique to this set, and look fantastic attached to the wings.
With Mickey seated inside, he can just about see through the windscreen, though forward visibility doesn't look great! He could also do with some form of steering mechanism, even if that was as simple as a standard steering wheel piece. However, the overall appearance of the plane is great, and just the right size for little hands to swoosh around the room.
Conclusion
For a model with less than 60 parts, there's a fair bit packed into it, and I was surprised at the relatively low price of £8.99 / $9.99 / 9.99€ given the Disney licence.
The new 4+ instructions are a great improvement for younger builders over the previous version, and my daughter was able to build the set in less than 20 minutes or so (with distractions!) completely unaided. The plane is a great hit with both her and her younger brother, who barely let me take the set away for photographing. I suspect it will live on one of their bedroom window sills and get regularly played with.
To me, the best part is the unique Mickey minifigure. This range comes with Mickey in a variety of outfits, but I think this retro-styled flying jacket is my favourite.
For classic Disney fans, what's not to like? A small, fun, playable set with a unique minifigure of an iconic character.
Thanks to LEGO for providing this set for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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35 comments on this article
What can you add to such a neat review?
The set is a cutie, the price is right, Mickey is slick: great outcome.
I've seen the Mickey barnyard set, and that's another interesting one. Finally LEGO's got something going with this new subtheme. Love it.
looking forward to its US release!
I have very little interest in the new Mickey Mouse sets outside of a few parts, but they really seem to have stepped up the 4+ designs with the range. They've stopped sacrificing detail for simplicity and seem to have found the perfect balance, and it works really well!
This 4+ set is actually really good.
I don't like big 4+ parts but this darkred "boat" type thing isn't as bad as the blocky car chassis or even the older plane with the wings already attached.
The part originated in a dragon : 71701 : Kai's Fire Dragon
As an airplane build I still prefer 60250 : Mail Plane of course , which is still available as of now.
But this is still pretty cool having an old school "cartoon" type plane with Aviator mickey, great for kids and disney fans, or 1 head swap away from a regular minifig.
It looks pretty good for a 4+ set
I'm glad you commented on the updated instructions, I first spotted them in just2good's review but he made no mention of it. I was excited to see how they'd changed them and it does seem like a vast improvement!
Everybody's favourite mouse? Mine's Jerry...
I love your reviews - great writing style, real-world test results, and a thorough overview of the set.
@sirventricle said:
"I love your reviews - great writing style, real-world test results, and a thorough overview of the set. "
Thank you!
@Huw said:
"Everybody's favourite mouse? Mine's Jerry..."
Mickey's clearly the best!
Great price and parts, and really a fantastic little model. Only downside is maybe no control sticks for the plane, but it is a 4+ set and easily rectified.
@benbacardi -
Fievel Mousekewitz *mic drop*
@Joefish said:
" @benbacardi -
Fievel Mousekewitz *mic drop*"
Pinky! Of Pinky and the Brain fame.
First thing my son (also 5) does on getting a new Lego set is to flick to the back of the instructions to see how many steps there are! OK maybe second thing - he also likes to check how many numbered bags there are...
Having said that he'd also enjoy Mickey walking across the page, I assume he starts at the left and finishes on the right hand side (like the Ninjago Prime Empire sets) to show build progress, and that effectively replaces the numbers.
Favourite mouse? Dangermouse by a very large margin!
I'm all for Mickey Mouse sets but it's just that I don't like specialty prints. I feel forced to use these figures in specific conditions.
Neat, and great value for money!
What a charming review! Lovely to read and full of good info. Thank you! Pinky' s my favourite, though:)
@Huw said:
"Everybody's favourite mouse? Mine's Jerry..."
Mine's Speedy Gonzales
This set is absolutely adorable, and I really want it now.
@HOBBES said:
" @Huw said:
"Everybody's favourite mouse? Mine's Jerry..."
Mine's Speedy Gonzales "
Gadget for me.
Hoping we get a minfigure of her and Monty someday.
@Huw said:
"Everybody's favourite mouse? Mine's Jerry..."
danger mouse for me
or brain
Thanks for this review, I was wondering if this range would suit my daughter and your review is perfect in this way.
The sets are very tempting but I don't like the different outfits myself : I feel like a generic Mickey Mouse/Donald Duck/etc. would be more "useful" in order to use him in different scenarios, instead of having one for the plane, one for the farm, etc. I understand it's way better for minifigures collectors though haha :D
@Huw said:
"Everybody's favourite mouse? Mine's Jerry..."
Matthias the Warrior of "Redwall" fame wins the best mouse prize for me : )
Great set
Great review
and I'm loving the new Mickey head silhouette piece.
The new design of instructions for the 4+ sets also shows up in the 4+ City Wildlife Rescue set. I can see exactly why they are good for younger builders.
Nice review, and I especially appreciate you discussing the build and instructions from the perspective of a parent with a young child!
I frequently see comments from AFOLs questioning what the point of "4+" sets like this is, assuming that any kid who's ready for LEGO System bricks should be able to jump straight into "ordinary" Friends or City sets without simpler sets like these to ease them into them. But honestly, jumping straight from Duplo to System sets aimed at "grade school" aged kids (even simple ones like 60300) can be a pretty big leap! So it's great to have sets and instructions that help ease kids into that sort of experience.
And it's not like this is a totally new thing, either. It's the same purpose that the Fabuland theme back in the 80s was intended to serve with its storybook-style instruction manuals and simplified building and vehicle parts. But there are also considerable differences between Fabuland's approach and that of today's 4+ sets.
Specifically, the Fabuland theme occupied its own picture-book-style "world" that was wholly separate from minifig-scale sets of that time. It also utilized upscaled and pre-assembled figures with their own whimsical range of accessories, and stuck primarily to studs-up "stacking" builds without SNOT techniques, Technic connections, or hinged sub-assemblies.
By contrast, today's 4+ sets deliberately use mostly the same sorts of figures, accessories, and themes/storylines that kids might see their older siblings building and playing with (and that they will likely continue to build and play with themselves even after they graduate from preschool themes). The sets also incorporate features like SNOT techniques and Technic connections that kids are likely to encounter once they move on to sets for older builders.
This set in particular manages to achieve a wonderfully bubbly, whimsical cartoon look, much like Fabuland sets (or the old Mickey Mouse sets of the early 2000s, which reused a lot of Fabuland parts). But impressively, it achieves this using fairly basic parts that are just as likely to show up in sets aimed at older builders, and to remain useful to owners of THIS set as they get older and more experienced as builders.
The use of the "dragon torso" starter brick as the base of the plane also showcases how much versatility and creative potential even parts as bulky and "juniorized" as these can have! In fact, as an adult, I've found it quite fun to play around with "4+" level parts and building techniques on stud.io to see how many different sorts of builds are possible even with these sorts of restrictions.
As a MOCist, it is a bit of a shame that this starter brick isn't a new recolor, but its darker color thankfully doesn't detract much from this particular set's colorful cartoon aesthetic. And knowing that the part is still in use gives me hope we'll see even more creative uses of it (and even more colors for it) in the future.
Thanks so much for the insightful review!
My favourite mice are of course Max, Morty and Marjorie from Fabuland*. Max and Morty even ran the Fabuland Airport.
Mickey Mouse has always creeped me out for unknown reasons but I really liked the look of this little plane and Mickey in his dashing pilot clothes so I bought it. Reminds me a lot of the Fabuland planes. Although Sandy Seagulls plane only has about 8 pieces !!
*Non Fabuland fave mouse......DangerMouse.
That is a very neat new Fabuland set!
@thor96 said:
"That is a very neat new Fabuland set!"
That was just my thinking. It reminded me of my 3625, instantly. Then I was wondering if a proprietary Fabuland-like theme could be just as succesful as the licensed Disney-theme. I certainly think so.
Is that a progress bar with mickey walking to indicate the progress? If you would flip through the pages you could theoretically make a little animation with the instructions. Neat!
The set looks decent for the age range.
For the folks reminded of Fabuland, know that in the year 2000 lego basically revived Fabuland with many of its parts returning but with none other than Mickey Mouse!
See for yourself:
https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Mickey-Mouse
Looking back at these, I'm glad they didn't try to stick to Fabuland too closely for the current 4+ range. That mickey figure is a thing straight from the uncanny valley. Those HANDS!
@Binnekamp said:
"Is that a progress bar with mickey walking to indicate the progress? If you would flip through the pages you could theoretically make a little animation with the instructions. Neat!"
Yes, it's the same style as the recent Friends sets.
We have a couple of other reviews coming out for the other sets in the range; for the one with Minnie and Daisy, Minnie walks along the bottom of the first instruction book, and Daisy along the second. It's a nice little touch!
@PixelTheDragon said:
" @HOBBES said:
" @Huw said:
"Everybody's favourite mouse? Mine's Jerry..."
Mine's Speedy Gonzales "
Gadget for me.
Hoping we get a minfigure of her and Monty someday."
Ah yes, my first furry crush. And a Rescue Rangers theme would be AWESOME! I always loved their roller skate blimp, I'd love a Lego version.
Side note: Little surprised no-one has said Mighty Mouse is their favorite mouse.
@Huw said:
"Everybody's favourite mouse? Mine's Jerry..."
Grabowski from Cat City ( https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0179955/ )
@Huw said:
"Everybody's favourite mouse? Mine's Jerry..."
Speedy for me.
My favorite mouse--Miss Bianca! (Or maybe her faithful Bernard....)
Cute set with a great review. And at this end of the range the "Disney tax" doesn't seem too unreasonable. I think I'll add this one to my wanted list! Thank you, benbacardi--and your daughter too!
LEGO has now published a video for parents explaining the 4+ building experience in general, as well as walking through the changes and improvements they've made to the instructions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjE9C8qKFgI