Review: 70804 Ice Cream Machine
Posted by Huw,
The Ice Cream Machine is another 2-in-1 LEGO Movie set which can be made into something relatively normal or something far from it, in this case an ice cream van -- which surprisingly is something LEGO has not previously made -- and a flying ice-cream shooting machine.
Here's what the The LEGO Movie Essential Guide book says about this set: "Ice Cream Mike and Ice Cream Jo usually serve the citizens icy treats, but their van is now a chilling flying machine. When Lord Business sees it, he will get his just desserts!"
The box front appears to show a minifig -- Cardio Carrie -- being chased by a Micro Manager, who is being pursued by the Ice Cream Machine. I'm sure it will all make sense once we've seen the movie :-)
Interestingly, the box, my one at least, is not as glossy as the other TLM ones, it's more like normal boxes.
The two models are clearly shown on the back along with pictures illustrating the action.
Inside, six parts bags, one vehicle plate, four hoses, three instruction manuals and one sticker sheet.
The ice cream sellers Mike and Jo are excellent. Mike has a full length pink and white striped apron on, while Jo has a matching pinny. Cardio Carrie is sporting her running gear.
All three have printed backs.
No two Micro Managers appear to be the same: this one is a flying 4x4 cube which shoots flick-missiles from the hole at the front.
There are three missiles: flick the bottom one and the technic beam drops to enable you to flick the next.
I built the Ice Cream Machine first, and here are a couple of pictures of it under construction:
The completed model:
Parts-wise, I don't think there are any new parts in it, but there are plenty of existing parts in new colours -- the tab cone (previously a Power Miners drill bit) and the 2x2 cones in a strange light green colour that LEGO calls 'Spr. Yel. Gree' and which has only been used for Duplo parts until now.
There are plenty of the new 1x1 ice-cream cones and ice-cream 'heads', in four colours.
The machine is armed with a cream squirting cannon mounted on the roof, and various ice-cream firing weapons on the wings and cab.
Here are all the components of the set, showing Mike and Jo in the machine.
Time then to dismantle the machine, and build the ice cream van. Note the fridge for lollies in the middle...
... and soft ice cream dispensers at the back.
The finished van looks great from the front. I can't say I've ever seen one with a massive ice cream on the roof but it doesn't look out of place. It probably doesn't do much for aerodynamics and fuel economy, though.
The roof lifts off to enable you to play inside.
The back looks a bit weird in my opinion. The sloped pink part at the back is normally used for train noses so we might now see MOCers making pink trains.
Mike and Jo pose for a photo in front of their van. This last picture illustrates the major design flaw of the set: it's far too tall!! I know ice cream vans need space inside for a man to stand and serve but this van is absolutely massive: the top of their heads barely reach the counter: what hope would a small child have?
If you can forgive the size issue, then the van is a really nice model with realistic features and it wouldn't take much to convert into something more to scale with City 'Great Vehicles'; dropping the counter down a brick or so and removing the oversized roof should do it. I shall have to give it a go.
My verdict:
- Parts - 4 - Nothing new but some great parts nevertheless and you can never have enough pink.
- Building experience - 3 - Both models are straightforward builds but are fun.
- Playability - 3 - Not a great deal to do with either models once they are built other than swoosh the machine around and flick a few ices.
- Value for money - 4 - £24.99 / $29.99 for 344-pieces is not too bad. A Star Wars set with a similar number would be £35-40, so the 'Hollywood Tax' does not seem so great on these sets, probably because LEGO owns the license.
- Overall - 4 - Great minifigs, fun models and lovely colours, what's not to like?
We have two more TLM sets to review for you; we'll get them published in the next few days...
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52 comments on this article
nice set. :)
I agree with the size, but I think I might buy it for my city and change it a bit.
This and the Castle Cavalry were the sets I thought I could withstand. Now I am not so sure about this one anymore. Thanks, huw! Some alterations in this also turns into a great kebab truck for Kebab Bob. Talking about him, when is the review for the Creative Ambush coming? (I could also offer mine ;-): http://lego-minifigures.tumblr.com/post/72686307330)
I'll definitely be getting this, simply because I'd love an Ice Cream Truck for my city. Great parts and colours besides! Thanks for the review Huw!
I thought you stopped reviewing the movie sets.
PS can you or (probably) Captainrex do reviews for the 2014 star wars sets please.
Maybe i'll just buy this one for having a icecream truck in the city :)
There have been an ice cream truck before in http://brickset.com/detail/?set=7888-1
I'm not joking ;)
Did you noted the Artoo legs used to support the giant Ice cream? I agree with the van being too high, Lego designers could have done the same with the garbage truck, leave some spare pieces for building the Ice cream truck. As for the new 2014 SW sets, when will we see them in stores?
You made a tiny error when building the flying machine;you swapped the blue and green ice cream heads on the side-mounted tanks, which makes the two (Bionicle/HF) tubes look incongruous. I suppose even the best make mistakes from time to time :P
Looks a great set,I really want this model as it looks very impressive.
I agree Lordmoral, this is ridiculous. Does anyone know when they're going to come out on this side of the Atlantic?
disappointing to not see the stickers applied, particularly if it was a set provided by Lego for free for the purposes of the review. If not, I reract my statement.
Thanks for the review and photos! Looks perfect for Heartlake City, which could be invaded any day by all sorts of baddies....LEGO certainly seems to make more than enough of them to threaten our friendly Friends!
Time for a quick run to the store for more Ice CREAM!!!! Ooooops! Of course after a visit to the gym!
@Golem25 beat me to it with the tiny but surprisingly significant looking build mistake! ;)
Thanks again for the review and build pics Huw, it does look like a great set. I normally detest pink (I've swapped out the pink parts on the Friends pet sets I got!) but this looks perfect for an ice cream van and for a mad Lego Movie set!
This has seemed like the best for a proper 2 in 1 set to me from the start and it seems like it is, though I agree that the height and the roof look a little odd. I hope you put pics up if you do manage to modify it.
Is that all the Movie sets reviewed now? Thanks all, I've enjoyed reading them! :D
Ah, there's the post Sea-Cow numbers to go yet aren't there. Does the plumber one really come with a porta-loo?! Amazing!!
The last two look fun too, and I guess the issue with 70813 is, how much of a fire engine can you make out of that mech? It doesn't say it's a 2 in 1, but it looks like it's got most of the key pieces...
Had to buy it my wife's name is carrie Ie cardio carrie
Am I the only one that sees some potential for a school bus? I don't think it would take much to make it into a Heartlake City School Bus.
Out of these sets, this one is probably my favorte because of the creative (re)uses for the parts. The giant ice cream cone is actually very cool...no pun intended!
I think that Micro Manager is one of my favorites. And on, that note, I think you missed one of his eyes.
This looks to be a fantastic set, and thanks for reviewing it!
I agree this is big, but it really looks great. Apart from the minifigs, this is the first LEGO Movie set I've been tempted to buy.
I wasn't sure about the amount of pink until I built it - one row of the sides are pink bricks, then next are tiles attached to white 1x4 SNOT bricks. So there's a good haul of parts in this set along with some great minifigs that would be useful around an ordinary town. Another oddity, besides the unique green of the clip-on domes, is that the 2x8 plates used inside are a lighter shade of pink.
I always think carefully, but this time I put all the stickers on. I think they really look great, and do enhance the pieces on their own. Obviously several of them are then only suitable for building some sort of ice cream van, or a very snazzy kiosk or gelateria, but to be honest, I don't see that as a drawback.
The only disappointment is that in either mode, there are quite a few bricks left over that are only needed for the other mode. But then there were quite a few extras in my box (2 of each of the blue / lime-green cored tubes, when only one of each is needed, and then only for the flying machine).
I honestly don't see the size as an issue, I think it may have been a conscious design decision.
Now, I'm not sure what ice cream trucks look like in the UK, but often in the US, they are VERY high off the ground with big roofs to accommodate the cold storage and freezer engine. I'm a 5'7" man and even I have to reach up to get ice cream from these guys. Kids often need another bigger kid or parent to help them. For that reason I actually kind of like it!
Now, the one thing that DOES bother me though is their choice of ice cream! We've got white, green, orange and blue. So that's what? Vanilla, pistachio (maybe?), orange sherbet? and uh.... "blue" flavored? C'mon now, at least complete the Neapolitan rainbow with brown chocolate and pink strawberry! They should have dropped orange and blue and put those two in. It's a minor gripe but still... ah well...
Seriously though, what flavor does everyone thing this mystery "blue" is?
edit: also, a brown chocolate ice cream could have been a GREAT piece for dirty diesel exhaust! There's a lot of white steam puffs going around, but never any dystopian smog-creating cough machines out there. Steampunk has the white, now cyberpunk needs brown!
On the micro manager there is one eye missing. Other than that and the tubes great review!
@DanRSL. I have seen blue ice cream. It is called "Blue Moon". I've never tried it, but I have heard a story about it. It's too sweet and leads to blue poop. It's an ingredient in "Superman" ice cream as well, which is also probably terrible. I did once eat Bubble Gum ice cream that was blue, although that was 30 years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Moon_(ice_cream)
Oh and the green could be mint.
I've seen pink in Friends sets. But clearly these are serving vanilla, pistachio, passionfruit sorbet and raspberry bubblegum flavours. Or maybe it's blue moon.
Ice cream vans in the UK are just regular delivery vans with the rear adapted; with a preference for vehicles with a vintage look. There's not much headroom, and hardly any standing room. Overhead at the back is used to store cones and wafers, a big chest freezer across the back for lollies, and the ice cream machine is behind the passenger seat (which is typically removed to let the driver get into and out of the back). The ice cream machine is usually powered directly from the engine via an added-on driveshaft; no separate generator. And on very rare occasions it might dispense two different flavours of ice cream. There's one in Southampton that does an excellent Strawberry '99!
Funniest one I've seen was one built onto the back of an old Land Rover, bounding along churning up the sands along the beach at Cromer. You'd flag him down and he'd make the most hair-raising tilting turns and pull right up to where you were sitting!
Huw, that odd greenish minty colour of the dome also comes in yellow kitty's round 1 x 1 neck in Cloud Cuckoo Palace, and I thought it's also the same colour of the 2 walls in that set.
Here in Italy we have a blue ice cream called "Puffo" (Smurfs) that's taste anise. It's terrible, by the way.
Thanks @DanRSL for explaining the height issue. With that in mind I can't see anything much to fault the set on.
But on the colours debate you started - you absolutely have to have green! Mint choc chip is my favourite! And blue is often used in sweet and drink colouring for raspberry as red was nicked by strawberry, so maybe some versions have gone with it. And from the comments above they're hardly mainstream, but bubblegum and blue moon don't seem to be so rare a flavour either.
I can't help but think, as much as we might need chocolate ice cream, those pieces in brown would facilitate some rather more unsavoury than dirty smoke in MOCs... ;)
I find these Movie sets to be rather addictive to be honest, all I need at this point are the three post Sea Cow numbers from the initial wave and it's a bear and a half finding any retailers carrying Creative Ambush or The Flying Flusher, while Rescue Reinforcements is 10$ above MSRP at TRU for whatever god awful reason. But that's the set with Blacktron and Fabu-Fan(s), I'm seriously tempted to pick it up after classes today if I don't find the other two at Wal-Mart.
Any word yet on the distribution methods of the new polybags?
It's interesting that this is the first Movie set I picked up and it's one of the last to be reviewed, considering the unique flavour of the set (if you'll pardon the pun) I thought there'd be more excitement for it. Honestly it's not such a bad set, and I've found an interesting use for the leftovers when built in Ice Cream Machine mode. I have no method of sharing images from school at the moment, plus the image in question is still on my camera back home, but I took the spare few bits left over and made a nice looking (if smallish scaled) tail section. Most things with wings tend to have a tail for stability and turning, it's not perfect, but it works in using all the left over pieces in the one build that aren't meant as spares in case of lost or broken pieces. And there's this huge open spot which is perfect for a quick-to-remove tail section so the Mini-Fig pilot can get in and out.
Anyway I've got a bit of work to do for class, so I'm off. Looking forward to more reviews of Movie stuff here, does anyone know if Canada is getting that free Taco Tuesday/Wild West Emmet from anywhere when you purchase the video game?
@Huw, your reviews are beginning to hurt my pocket. "Oh good" I thought, the only sets I really want in 2014 are the two modulars I don't have. Then I read reviews on here and immediately think "I have got to have this set". Although I have no interest in the movie I really like some of the sets I am seeing from it.
This is one set I will not de-pinkify, as I think in this case the pink suits the model, (unlike most of the friends sets). This van will look great in my town/beach layout, (when I have time and space to build it).
The ice cream piece does come in reddish brown, it was in the SpongeBob Glove World set.
And to the poster who asked when these sets will be available in the US, I have seen most of them at both Walmart and Target, over a week ago. Sadly, my wallet is still recuperating from Christmas...
^Yep, I saw about all of the TLM sets and all other 2014 sets at a Target as well, though for some reason not 60060. Hm.....
@zipsforbananas: JANGBRICKS has a MOC from that set, check that video.
I can't believe no one has noticed this yet, but the ice cream dispensers look like the "whippy" (or some may call it "swirly") type you often see in ice cream machines in the UK, but the ice cream itself is the "scoop" type - it doesn't really match! For proper whippy ice cream - use this new part: http://www.brickset.com/parts/?part=6060795 - now we just need it in white :-)
Just a funny oddity noted there, but you know what, who doesn't love ice cream and who cares what shape it comes in? :-)
I personally love this set, by far my favorite of the two in one models! Excellent pictures and write up!
Honestly seems a shame that you don't put the stickers on, especially since you get handed these sets for free by LEGO to review for the masses. The stickers actually put this set over the top and aren't difficult to apply...so why not? Without them your not technically reviewing the entire set.
"I'm sure it will all make sense once we've seen the movie" - now is there a set we've all opened and/or reviewed and haven't asked that question? :) Seriously, even the minifig packets for this have fractured my mind thinking "how does this fit in?"
@zipsforbananas about the chocolate ice cream - oh dear, I hadn't thought of that.
Interesting to hear about the different blue flavors around the world! It reminded me of when I lived in Japan, one of the most popular flavors of shaved ice was "Blue Hawaii", which is described as having "soda" flavor (which to a foreigner, kind of makes no sense). Basically it tasted like a sweet, but not very distinct soft drink flavor, maybe close to something like tutti frutti
This is my favorite movie set so far and the first of the 2-in-1's I picked up. The detail inside the ice cream truck model and the colors are my favorite parts. The flyer model is cute and appealing, but...yeah, definitely attached to the truck model, haha. February cannot come soon enough!
This wasn't mentioned in the review, but Cardio Carrie has another face also.
This was one of the only Movie sets I wanted to get, just because it turns into a vehicle that my Lego city doesn't have (and definitely needs. How else do Lego people keep cool on hot summer afternoons?).
I do agree that the truck is monstrously tall, but I've found that a weakness of all the Great Big Vehicles that they've released in the last decade, so I'm learning to make my peace with it.
I'm definitely going to be adding this to my City. I love the alternate builds on this line. Not that I NEED another firetruck, but I'm kind of surprised that there isn't an alt build for it. Oh, well.
Best set of 2014!
This set was fun to build; it was the coolest looking of the 2-in-1 sets. There were so many extra pieces after the first run through as a "normal" build that I barely waited to disassemble / build the fighter. "Everything is awesome!"
Thanks for the pointer @Isabella and Lego Liker. I'd not come across Jangbricks, but I like his presenting style, and he's done a pretty good job of reverse engineering a fire engine there.
I was expecting it to be frustratingly impossible as they'd not made it a proper 2 in 1, but as it can be done it almost seems like an unspoken but obvious-as-anything invitation to try it. Hopefully it'll inspire kids to try and do it the other way round with all their other normal sets so they open up a whole new world of creativity. :)
@RubiconIII, good catch. That set was incredibly hard to come by at the time and I don't have it.
@Golem25, well spotted. The instructions don't actually show the tubes in green and blue, they are both shown as grey, which might explain why there are two of each colour in the set but only only one of each is used.
@hewman, you make a fair point but it does serve a useful purpose not applying the stickers so that those that also don't can see what it'll look like without them.
{insert tongue in cheek}
Maybe it's so tall because it was inspired by this: http://finedininglovers.cdn.crosscast-system.com/ImageAlbum/7331/original_monster.ice.cream.truck.1.jpg
{remove tongue from cheek}
I want this for the ice cream truck!
Thanks for the review, Huw. Now my city *must* have an ice cream truck. All those police, fire, garbage and assorted truck people were getting mighty hungry and they don't have time for a leisurely meal at Chez Albert.
One of the reasons I enjoy your reviews is being introduced to terms like "pinny."
^ I did wonder if that word was known on your side of the pond!
The blue ice cream could be blueberry, we have it in the US.[I have had it.]
Also cotton candy as a blue ice cream flavor.
Awesome!
Blue Moon flavor ice cream was pretty popular when I was a kid.
I was hoping the green was Mint Chocolate Chip.
You could always mod this one to give Joker a proper truck... His is tiny.
I adore this set. It's currently parked in front of my modular pet shop and the citizens of my town are lining up, the van looks exactly like the lickety-split trucks here in New York.
One of the few "pinkish" sets I want to buy, really beautiful building, I would buy in a week :)