Review: 40566 Ray the Castaway
Posted by Huw,
40566 Ray the Castaway is based on the winning entry of last year's LEGO Ideas competition Do you want to go to the seaside? It will be the gift with purchase at LEGO.com from the 1st to the 13th of October, free with purchases exceeding $120 / €120 / £120.
With the resurgence of interest in Pirates following the release of 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay and 31109 Pirate Ship, I predict that this will be a highly sought-after set.
Summary
40566 Ray the Castaway, 239 pieces.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A highly desirable GWP that will particularly appeal to Pirate fans
- Faithful to the original submission
- Well designed and attractive
- Can't be purchased separately -- high spend needed to acquire it
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
The model comprises around 240 pieces which are packed in unnumbered bags.
LEGO has moved towards a bland white design for instruction covers recently, but this one seems to have bucked that trend. Perhaps it was designed before the decision to standardise was made.
Ray is fortunate to have been castaway on a very pleasant-looking island, with lush vegetation, colourful animals and vibrant blue sea surrounding it. He's been able to fashion a shelter from available resources and looks to have an abundant supply of fish for sustenance.
As you can see it's very similar to the DadiTwins' original submission. In fact the only noticeable differences are that he has a parrot rather than a seagull for company, and he's not needed to use his trousers for a sail on the raft.
I particularly like the use of the brown 6-pronged stalks under the palm tree's leaves to replicate its flowers.
A treasure chest full of jewels nestles beneath Ray's shelter.
There are a lot of details everywhere, so it looks great from every angle.
An SOS is spelt out on the beach, using a pair of 28588 SNAKE W/ 3.2 SHAFT NO. 1 and a lifebuoy, hoping to attract attention from above.
In the backstory the DadiTwins created for the competition entry, Ray is not a pirate, but he is nevertheless attired in a torso that was introduced in 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay and I suspect he will be treated as a marooned marauder by many who play with the set.
Overall, it's a very well-designed, detailed, attractive and desirable gift with purchase, one of the best this year.
With many new sets launching during its period of availability it should not be too difficult to find something to buy to acquire it.
It will be the gift with purchase at LEGO.com from the 1st to the 13th of October, free with purchases exceeding $120 / €120 / £120.
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70 comments on this article
WILSOOOON!
Wonderful GWP with a 'decent' threshold, great stuff!
So cool! It reminds me so much Johnny Castaway!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVgGfKY91Lg
I'm not sure if the rubber lifebuoy is suitable for the pirate era. :D
Currently the set link in the article reports "Sorry, we don't have a set with that number in our database" if you follow the link.
^ Fixed!
The fish glows in the dark?
@OscarWRG said:
"The fish glows in the dark?"
Looks like spring yellowish green, not GITD.
I love sets like this. I hate that they always end up being GWPs.
What a surprise! Very detailed and so charming.
Really looking forward to this one. Takes me back to Robinson Crusoe rather than Ray though!
Might even have to get a few bits and pieces on the 1st incase there's a rush before the Winter Village on the 3rd.
Although they do seem to start with just a £100+ threshold, and then add an additional bonus £50+ threshold a few days later, which can be a little irritating!
WILSON!
Would've preferred a seagull...and would add an additional seagull to the Lighthouse since, you know, seagulls rarely travel alone LOL
@RUL said:
"I'm not sure if the rubber lifebuoy is suitable for the pirate era. :D"
"In the backstory the DadiTwins created for the competition entry, Ray is not a pirate, but he is nevertheless attired in a torso that was introduced in 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay and I suspect he will be treated as a marooned marauder by many who play with the set."
This is a terrific set!
Cool little set that looks like it will go well with Barracuda Bay!
A nice home for my 71029-3: Shipwreck Survivor
A seagull or a turtle would have been nice extras but even without a great set.
It's a fun set but I don't see myself spending that much to get
I held off on getting the new lighthouse so I could get this, it looks great, the SOS is a nice detail.
Fun set but is Ray really a castaway? He seems to be having it pretty dang good right now.
Cute little GWP! I might order some of the summer Monkie Kid sets to get this since sadly, my local Lego store seems to have stopped stocking them.
@Carbohydrates said:
" @OscarWRG said:
"The fish glows in the dark?"
Looks like spring yellowish green, not GITD."
Thanks
We have Ray at home 71029-3. No Urge.
@TomKazutara said:
"Why is there now a pirate gift set, when the Barracuda bay is gone ?"
Because Barracuda Bay has it's own island... it doesn't need another one!
Where’s the volleyball?
I love this! Threshold seems bit steep, but I want to buy The Office set and this GWP might be the perfect excuse to get it from lego.com
@TomKazutara said:
" @sjr60 said:
" @TomKazutara said:
"Why is there now a pirate gift set, when the Barracuda bay is gone ?"
Because Barracuda Bay has it's own island... it doesn't need another one!"
Fantastic, and the 10305 Castle had it's own Forestmen Hide Out, and didn't need another (40567).
What is that logic ?"
In europe 40567 was still available for a few days when 10305 was released, but lego screwed all american customers.
The VIP gift sets just have weird timing.
Sadly they eliminated the potential for another seagull source which is a bummer.
At least the instructions cover looks normal. The new “standard” is very ugly and I can only conclude is the outcome of making that part of the instructions auto-generated.
BrickLink, here I come.
Why do I feel so disappointed by the lack of seagull?
I somehow got five seagulls at the minifigure building stand in the Lego store, so they will came in handy if I get this to put next to the fishing shop.
I predict that 40513 will be another GWP as of 1 October, as Halloween is approaching… I'd like to get this set as I find it cute; a good motivation to get 21336 The Office, or maybe I could wait for 75331 Razor Crest if it's launched with a nice GWP…
For a set this nice with this many pieces, I don't think a $120 spend is unreasonable. I think it's funny that AFOLs complain about a "high spend" for GWP when many of us are going out and dropping several times that amount every month.
This says it's available at Lego.com during that timeframe. What about retail stores? If I'm dropping $120+ on a large set to get this, I'd prefer to just go to a nearby retail store rather than take my chances with LaserShip.
Ray should have had some kind of ball to play with (and talk to eventually).
Also pay attention to the shore: the message is out of the bottle!
$600 Razor Crests, $350 life size busts, and $120 GWPs becoming the norm… I’d be okay if LEGO toned it down a little…
Holiday sets should make this threshold easily.
@TomKazutara said:
"Why is there now a pirate gift set, when the Barracuda bay is gone ?"
Because this wasn’t even a twinkle in Lego’s eye when Barracuda Bay was released?
“40566 Ray the Castaway is based on the winning entry of last year's LEGO Ideas competition ‘Do you want to go to the seaside’?”
A lovely set and great value for a GWP. I really like the SOS and the aesthetics of this. It could make a good Islanders hut actually.
However many people will miss out as usual (especially most Australian fans) due to severely limited stocks. (stores here are lucky to get 3, at best 5 GWP sets for the entire time). Hence I will continue to advocate for GWPs to be banned and instead be sold as regular sets.
A good compromise has been suggested of having these as GWPs for a while and then letting people buy them as regular sets afterwards. That would be the best solution for everyone, provided Lego sent stores proper stocks of the set.
It looks really good !
I don’t see any point in commenting further on prices, thresholds and exclusivity so more positively, this is a wonderful set, all credit to the designer!
@huw do you know the Australian spend threshold for this set by any chance?.
It's always a higher cost for us than the advertised $ / € / £ amount when released.
@PDelahanty said:
"For a set this nice with this many pieces, I don't think a $120 spend is unreasonable. I think it's funny that AFOLs complain about a "high spend" for GWP when many of us are going out and dropping several times that amount every month.
This says it's available at Lego.com during that timeframe. What about retail stores? If I'm dropping $120+ on a large set to get this, I'd prefer to just go to a nearby retail store rather than take my chances with LaserShip."
I wish I was one of many of us that could afford to do that!
Nice set. I'm just worried about the fire that Ray kept burning. He will soon run out of fuel on such a small island. Hope he gets to make some smoke signals to rescuers before it's out.
Very nice looking set! …I’m liking These cute vignettes. …The spend limit doesn’t seem bad for this either. This on it’s own feels like a $20-25 set.
@gatorbug6 said:
"Why do I feel so disappointed by the lack of seagull? "
I don't know.... It's not as if you'd even get wafers with it!
What an incredible little set! It would look great with the pirates of barracuda bay and 71029 shipwreck survivor. Congrats to the designer also!
I’m not only impressed with the set, I’m impressed by how faithful it is to the Dadi Twins original entry. Well done! I appreciate the use of the pants for the sails more than what was replicated in he set.
This is a missed opportunity to include a certain printed item.
Notice that it's missing the Ideas logo on the box but it's in the instructions? It's a first.
@Wrecknbuild said:
"Nice set. I'm just worried about the fire that Ray kept burning. He will soon run out of fuel on such a small island. Hope he gets to make some smoke signals to rescuers before it's out."
This might explain the Nord Stream 1 leak.
@Lordmoral said:
"This is a missed opportunity to include a certain printed item."
It’s also a missed opportunity to release a desert island goat!
This set is very silly. I love it!!!
Beautiful and detailed set. Way back, I have built a similar figure and put it on one of those 16x16 baseplates with little island pattern with a single palm tree on it. I think I can replicate some of the details and make it look a little richer with the help of this set. We'll see...
My god, that's my dream set. Was thinking about something like it often.
It needs a sound brick!
https://youtu.be/OE10msGsCn4
Am I the only one that needs that ladder turned around so the holes are facing the inside of the model?
Yet another GWP that I won't get due to the spend threshold. Although $120 isn't that high. If they had actually sold this set, I would have considered buying it for $15.
@PhantomBricks said:
"Yet another GWP that I won't get due to the spend threshold. Although $120 isn't that high. If they had actually sold this set, I would have considered buying it for $15."
The trouble is, since the whole point of GWPs is to encourage us to buy other sets many would probably never have even seen the light of day as payed for sets.
Robinson Crusoe!
@miskox said:
"Robinson Crusoe!"
I was starting to think that nobody else remembered the original castaway!
Swapped the pants for tighty-whities, I see.
@sjr60:
In markets where they're restricted by business contracts from reducing prices before a set is discontinued, and their business partners are not, GWPs can be a way of effectively reducing the price by giving you more when you do spend money on direct sales.
@sjr60 :
11+ years ago I made this.
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/4922fbf0-e6b6-4e5a-9ada-f6e7fe630107
@miskox said:
" @sjr60 :
11+ years ago I made this.
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/4922fbf0-e6b6-4e5a-9ada-f6e7fe630107 "
Excellent... I used to love the TV show almost 60 years ago. (I don't go back quite as far as the novel release though!)
Ordered Ray the Castaway at 1am CEST :-) Together with The Office and a muppet minifig (to reach 120 EUR, of course)... Can't wait!
I staid up until midnight to order The Office, was surprised to get this and the Halloween parts pack as GWPs! Cheers.
Stayed! Sorry ‘bout that.
@faster345:
Huh. I specifically waited until today to place a PAB order for parts to make a garage for Home Alone (it uses a ton of reddish-brown and dark-red, so I want _new_ parts that won't turn brittle). It took until almost 4am to finish entering parts, and then it turns out I had almost twice what I needed for this GWP. I ended up deleting all the Bestseller parts because they don't need as much time to ship, added a couple other items to clear $120, and placed my order. I did notice the VIP parts pack in my cart, but not which one it is. I got the Pirates pack previously, so hopefully I haven't missed one.
Is there a part list available somewhere?
@Trollipop said:
"Is there a part list available somewhere?"
Not yet... The instructions normally appear on Lego.com a few days after release.
I got mine for £30 on ebay, which i think is a fair price. Didnt want to spend the extra to get it 'free'
@fulcrumbop said:
"Holiday sets should make this threshold easily."
Literally got the Christmas sets today and was very pleased to hit the threshold without trying. :D