Our series of set reviews of THE LEGO MOVIE 2: The Second Part continues today with 70830 Sweet Mayhem’s Systar Starship! Ben Davies (ProfessorBrickkeeper) returns to examine another bumper collection of exciting parts.
One of the first sets revealed for the toy line and featuring prominently in the initial trailer for the film, 70830 Sweet Mayhem’s Systar Starship! has been one of the most anticipated sets for The LEGO Movie 2, thanks in no small part to its unusual design, wide assortment of teal bricks, and inclusion of several new-for-2019 elements.
Before examining all the new parts, let’s take a look at the construction of the ship and the finished model.
For an experienced LEGO builder, construction of the ship is relatively straight-forward, with the process broken into three stages for constructing the structure of the spacecraft, basic shaping, and exterior details. It does, however, include some interesting techniques to achieve the spherical shaping, the most notable of which is the use of two transparent ‘nipple’ bricks (Design ID 31570) to hold a 1x1 Round Plate with Shaft (26047) at a 45 degree angle.
The finished ship stands out among other ships LEGO has released for its spherical shape. In the front, the ship features a cockpit that can fit a minidoll or minifig. Both sides of the craft open up to reveal the interior of the ship. The left side features a jail cell, while the right features a weapons storage area, containing a map of the Systar System, holders for Sweet Mayhem’s guns, and places to house the ‘Star’ and ‘Heart’ figures.
The back of the ship features an engine which is built using a tire rim. A slot for dispensing stickers is also included. The bottom of the ship features retractable landing gear, as well as a 2X2 round tile shooter.
The set includes two minifigures (Emmet and Lucy) and one minidoll (Sweet Mayhem). Sweet Mayhem’s figure introduces several new parts and an all new iridescent ink drum lacquer coating, which has been covered in a previous article. Brick-built heart and star figures are also included. (More about these later!)
As mentioned in the introduction, 70830 Sweet Mayhem’s Systar Starship! features a fantastic variety of bricks in teal, a.k.a. Bright Bluish Green [TLG]/ Dark Turquoise [BL], the majority appearing here for the first time. These new-for-2019 recolors include:
The set also features the second appearance of “Brick 1X3X2 w. inside bow” (6236766|18653) in Bright Bluish Green, which previously only appeared in BrickHeadz set 41623 Ariel & Ursula in 2018.
The set also features several bricks which are appearing in White for the first time.
To round out the major recolors in set 70830, three parts make their debut in Medium Azure. These parts include:
In addition to the aforementioned bricks, 1/4 Circle Tile 1X1 (6240462|25269) appears here in Bright Purple [TLG]/ Dark Pink [BL] for the first time, and Angular Plate 1.5 BOT. 1X2 1/2 (6099449|99780) reappears in Bright Purple for the first time since 21308 Adventure Time in 2016.
Another rare part, Plate 1X1 Round W/ 3.2 Shaft (6225246|26047) appears in here in Medium Stone Grey [TLG]/ Light Bluish Gray [BL], after debuting in 2018 in 21311 Voltron, as discussed in our review.
A Medium Lavender Plate 1X4, W/ 2 Knobs, No. 2 (6249089|41740) also appears in this set, an updated version of 6133505|92593 with bottom grooves and interior walls. In the comments section of a recent article, New Elementary readers hypothesized that these changes may have made to distinguish the part from 1X4 plates and tiles, to increase bottom clutch power, and to make it easier to remove.
Five new printed parts appear in this this set. These include:
Despite what the name would suggest, at no point does the tile measure 8mm (one stud) across. The tile is designed to work rotated at 45 degree intervals, but will always extend 1mm into some neighboring studs. While this makes it somewhat difficult to integrate in creations, it can be made to create some interesting tiling patterns when used alongside the quarter round tile (25269).
Another exciting new part is ‘Plate, Round 4 X 4 X 2/3 with Star and 1 Open Stud’, officially known as ‘Design Plate, 4X4X2/3, No. 1’ (6248804|39611).
While quite similar to the 4-petal flower element introduced in Unikitty in 2018 (Design ID 35473), the new star is considerably more difficult to integrate into MOCs, given the five points which do not align nicely with the stud grid. The bottom of the brick is similar to that of the tub element (64951), which unfortunately prevents adjacent studs from being used. The new star element in used in combination with a decorated 2X2 tile set to create the “Star” brick-built character.
The third, ‘Plate 3X3, Heart, No. 1’ (6254513|39613) is a lot more easy to use when building. Measuring 3X3 studs, the brick has a footprint that is a combination of two 2x2 round plates and 2x2 plate overlapping on a single stud.
This new element offers an excellent alternative to stacked “Coupling Plate 2X2” (3176), which in past have been used to create a heart shape. The modified plate is used to form the basis of the “Heart” brick-built character in the set, with the use of four quarter-tiles and a decorated 2X2 tile.
Last but not least, the set also introduces a fourth new element, which is rather... unorthodox.
The ‘Sticker Roll,’ which is given its own element and design ID pairing of 6251042|48056, is quite unlike any previous element. In trailers for The LEGO Movie 2, several of the main characters can be seen being assaulted with stickers from Sweet Mayhem’s ship. Rather than using brick-builds to represent real-world items, as was done in sets for the first LEGO Movie, this time LEGO has instead opted to use actual stickers to represent stickers. What a novel idea!
The roll, which is wound around a cardboard tube, features 36 stickers and measures approximately 48 inches/122 centimeters long, when fully unspooled. Interestingly, a product entry on the site for US retailer Target suggests that a standalone refill sticker roll is also being produced.
Despite having one of the highest price-per-piece values (12.0p / 13.9c / 13.9c) of any of The LEGO Movie 2 sets, I am happy to say that 70830 Sweet Mayhem’s Systar Starship! is easily one of the best sets for new parts in recent memory. For those keeping track, it contains approximately 22 new recolored (primarily in Bright Bluish Green) parts, four notable new non-minifigure elements, and five all-new printed parts, resulting in over thirty-one new parts. Add to this the wonderful selection of minifigures and the unconventional ship design, and this set is easy to recommend, even at the price of £59.99 / 69.99€ / US$69.99.
Consider helping New Elementary by buying your LEGO Movie 2 sets from Amazon.
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The Building Process
The Finished Build
The back of the ship features an engine which is built using a tire rim. A slot for dispensing stickers is also included. The bottom of the ship features retractable landing gear, as well as a 2X2 round tile shooter.
The set includes two minifigures (Emmet and Lucy) and one minidoll (Sweet Mayhem). Sweet Mayhem’s figure introduces several new parts and an all new iridescent ink drum lacquer coating, which has been covered in a previous article. Brick-built heart and star figures are also included. (More about these later!)
Recolored Pieces in 70830 Sweet Mayhem’s Systar Starship!
- Plate W. Bow 2X2X2/3 (Element ID 6223665|Design ID 15068)
- 1X4 Circle Tile 1X1 (6240467|25269)
- Round Plate Ø64X9.6 (6249387|3961)
- Plate 2X3 (6249417|3021)
- Angular Plate 1,5 Top 1X2 1/2 (6249418|99781)
- Roof Tile 2X2/45º (6249419|3039)
- Brick 2 X 6 W. Bow (6249423|44126)
- Angular Plate 1X2 / 2X2 (6249425|21712)
- Brick W/Bow 1/3 (6249426|50950)
- Plate W. Bow 1X2X2X2/3 (6249427|11477)
- Brick 4X4 W. Bow/Angle (6249429|47753)
- Plate 2X10 (6249538|3832)
- Final Brick 2X2 (6249559|30367)
- 1/4 Arch Brick 5X5, W/ Cutout, No. 1 (6254654|44367)
The set also features the second appearance of “Brick 1X3X2 w. inside bow” (6236766|18653) in Bright Bluish Green, which previously only appeared in BrickHeadz set 41623 Ariel & Ursula in 2018.
The set also features several bricks which are appearing in White for the first time.
- Balcony 1/2 4X8X2 1/3 (6097483|6066)
- Brick 2X2 Fric/Fork Vert/End (6249388|40902)
- Brick 1X2, Outside Half Bow (6248827|37352)
- Roof Tile 8X6 45Deg W/Cut (6256536|22390)
- Laser Pistol (6257517|13608)
To round out the major recolors in set 70830, three parts make their debut in Medium Azure. These parts include:
- Shell 6X8X2 W/Bow/Angle (6258445|40995)
- Plate 2X2, Corner, 45 Deg. (6249415|26601)
- Parabola 6X6 (6133892|44375)
In addition to the aforementioned bricks, 1/4 Circle Tile 1X1 (6240462|25269) appears here in Bright Purple [TLG]/ Dark Pink [BL] for the first time, and Angular Plate 1.5 BOT. 1X2 1/2 (6099449|99780) reappears in Bright Purple for the first time since 21308 Adventure Time in 2016.
Another rare part, Plate 1X1 Round W/ 3.2 Shaft (6225246|26047) appears in here in Medium Stone Grey [TLG]/ Light Bluish Gray [BL], after debuting in 2018 in 21311 Voltron, as discussed in our review.
A Medium Lavender Plate 1X4, W/ 2 Knobs, No. 2 (6249089|41740) also appears in this set, an updated version of 6133505|92593 with bottom grooves and interior walls. In the comments section of a recent article, New Elementary readers hypothesized that these changes may have made to distinguish the part from 1X4 plates and tiles, to increase bottom clutch power, and to make it easier to remove.
Printed Parts in 70830 Sweet Mayhem’s Systar Starship!
Five new printed parts appear in this this set. These include:
- Flat Tile 2X2, Round, No. 1122 (6254648|44287)
- Flat Tile 2X2, No. 388 (6248804|44354)
- Flat Tile 2X2, No. 389 (6253298|44355)
- Cockpit DiA. 47.7 W/ Shaft, No. 16 (6254646|44365)
- 1/4 Arch Brick 5X5, W/ Cutout, No. 1 (6254654|44367) - pictured among the teal recolors.
New Elements in 70830 Sweet Mayhem’s Systar Starship!
The set also features four new elements that should prove very popular with builders. The first of these new parts is ‘Tile 1X1, Heart, No. 1’ (6256130|39739).
Another exciting new part is ‘Plate, Round 4 X 4 X 2/3 with Star and 1 Open Stud’, officially known as ‘Design Plate, 4X4X2/3, No. 1’ (6248804|39611).
While quite similar to the 4-petal flower element introduced in Unikitty in 2018 (Design ID 35473), the new star is considerably more difficult to integrate into MOCs, given the five points which do not align nicely with the stud grid. The bottom of the brick is similar to that of the tub element (64951), which unfortunately prevents adjacent studs from being used. The new star element in used in combination with a decorated 2X2 tile set to create the “Star” brick-built character.
The third, ‘Plate 3X3, Heart, No. 1’ (6254513|39613) is a lot more easy to use when building. Measuring 3X3 studs, the brick has a footprint that is a combination of two 2x2 round plates and 2x2 plate overlapping on a single stud.
Last but not least, the set also introduces a fourth new element, which is rather... unorthodox.
The roll, which is wound around a cardboard tube, features 36 stickers and measures approximately 48 inches/122 centimeters long, when fully unspooled. Interestingly, a product entry on the site for US retailer Target suggests that a standalone refill sticker roll is also being produced.
Conclusion
Despite having one of the highest price-per-piece values (12.0p / 13.9c / 13.9c) of any of The LEGO Movie 2 sets, I am happy to say that 70830 Sweet Mayhem’s Systar Starship! is easily one of the best sets for new parts in recent memory. For those keeping track, it contains approximately 22 new recolored (primarily in Bright Bluish Green) parts, four notable new non-minifigure elements, and five all-new printed parts, resulting in over thirty-one new parts. Add to this the wonderful selection of minifigures and the unconventional ship design, and this set is easy to recommend, even at the price of £59.99 / 69.99€ / US$69.99.
Consider helping New Elementary by buying your LEGO Movie 2 sets from Amazon.
Amazon USA: Amazon.com Canada: Amazon.ca UK: Amazon.co.uk Deutschland: Amazon.de
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I like new elements, but as a MOCer, parts like those hearts, or the weird gear plates, are a bit a kick in the nuts, considering how many useful parts are still "missing"/exist in other brands.
ReplyDelete(for me, the most useful parts in the last few years have been the hollow 1x1 & 1x2 round plates, the hollow 1x1 round plate with bar, the "slopes cut at an angle" pairs, and the 1x1 brackets.. all of which some other brands already had. Things like basic stud invertors, or Mega Blok's *perfect* bracket plates with just the stud hanging out, we could have had instead of a heart-shaped tile..)
Blech. That is a messy list of teal parts. I don't usually have so much trouble matching them up, but I think this time it could benefit from a numbered list instead of generic bullet points. Official LEGO part names are terrible and inconsistent (is this the only radar dish that's not called a "parabola"?). Also, your baby bow appears to have gone 4-dimensional.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that officially LEGO have renamed most of the Parabolas that I can see, if you have a look on Brickset you will see that they are now Round Plate with the diameter now. e.g. ROUND PLATE Ø32X6.4 for the 4x4 Dish....er...PARABOLA ;-) The 4D baby bow will be fixed shortly thanks x
DeleteHmm. Weird. I was just getting used to the idea that they even called them parabolas. The first time I remember hearing that term used to refer to them was when former Master Builder Dan was in Michigan to run the only Millennium Falcon event in the US, back in I think 2017. Previously it had only been run in, I believe, Australia for Star Wars Celebration. As part of the event they had to throw together a lifesize Darth Vader model just to display, and Dan was trying to figure out how to represent something like the belt buckle when he spotted a radar dish. When he set it up, there was a LEGO Certified Professional on hand who took one look at it and just about had to pick his jaw up off the floor. He asked Dan if he knew what it was, and Dan (as he explained to me) said, "Yeah, it's a parabola!" It was the radar dish from the 10179 UCS Millennium Falcon, well after that set had been retired, and before any credible rumors of a new version started making the rounds. At the time it was probably worth somewhere between $150-200. Whenever I see one of these called a parabola, that is always the story I think of.
DeleteGood review!
ReplyDeleteI love the aesthetic of the Systar System vehicles we've had so far in this theme and can't wait to see what the summer has in store. Both of them offer great colors, including lots of teal and unconventional colors for windscreens. This particular vehicle is deceptively large and hefty thanks to its SNOT build and largely studless exterior. I love the use of the hot air balloon segments to round out the corners.
I also love the cute little heart character, and kind of hope we might see an even bigger, chubby-faced version in a summer set using the new 6x6 heart plate (Design ID 46342). The star character is also great, and while the star plate is a little harder to find uses for, it's also one of those shapes that would be exceedingly hard to replicate without a dedicated part. Small side note—the way the heart character is mounted securely in the cargo hold is quite clever!
The tiny heart tile is also great—again, a shape that would otherwise be hard to represent in this size (previously the only similarly sized hearts were the crystal heart jewel piece from Friends and Elves or a harder to use hair accessory). The Dragon Dance set already shows how well it can be used for other decorative purposes.
The brick-built star and heart are supposed to be stickers, based on both the trailers and the set. It looks like the Systar ship is built exactly like the movie version (unlike a lot of TLBM Batman's vehicles, or the various TLM Micromanagers), so I wouldn't expect to see any brick-built stickers that are larger than what would fit on that sticker roll.
DeleteThe star plate is interesting in that it offers a completely different set of possibilities than the heart. I guarantee we'll see it used for the sun against the sky, and for flower petals. I also just noticed something odd about the heart plate. The studs on the lobes are not clipped. The radius appears to be exactly the same as a 2x2 round brick or plate, but the studs on those are clipped so they don't hang off the edge. This can result in a loose connection if something needs to grip the inside and outside edges rather than the sides. This plate has full studs, which means there's no angle at which any part will suddenly lose clutch and fall off. Not sure why it matters, since there aren't many angles, or many parts, where you can actually achieve that lack of clutch.
I also predict tons of irate parents when they find out their kid cocooned their favorite minifig with $3 worth of stickers and can't get them to peel off as easily as they went on...
BTW, I did manage to use the Friends hair accessory as cartoon-style heart effects on my Aquaman vs Flipper In Love vignette (they'll plug into the bar on the 1x1 round tile w/ bar), but if these 1x1 heart tiles had been available at that time I guarantee I probably would have gone with those instead.
Hm? The star and heart aren't supposed to be stickers, I don't think—the stickers, best I can tell, represent the actual stickers that are fired at the heroes after their meeting with Sweet Mayhem (like when Batman is wrapped up in them). The heart in the movie is designed just like the one in the set, while curiously, the star is mostly the same as the piece except with the face printed directly on the star instead of having a stud. I'm guessing that at some point in the movie Sweet Mayhem "rides" the star like in the Metalbeard trike set, hence Lego opting for a version with a stud in the sets for better play value. The printed star tile, on the other hand, probably is meant to represent the same sort of brick-built star as in the cargo hold—probably because it'd be hard to make a launcher that'd fire star-shaped or heart-shaped ammunition.
DeleteI get the issue with looking at Heart and Star and seeing not-stickers, but it sorta looks like they're launched the same way, doesn't it? And in the first trailer, we saw them stick to a wall. Maybe we'll get a more definitive indication when the movie comes out. Totally agree about the round printed tile, but I find it odd that they wasted the logical chance to do the same thing with Heart. And somehow I missed the fact that Star has no square tile in the trailers. But remember, this is a co-venture between The LEGO Company and WB. WB wants stuff to look cool on screen, while LEGO needs to keep the number of new single-use molds in check. I suspect the stud on the star is just to make it more versatile going forwards, especially since SM has a jetpack to get around with.
DeleteWhen they stuck to the wall in the trailer it looked to me more like they were stuck in by the point, like a shuriken or similar sharp projectile.
DeleteI just saw an advance screening today. They really don't explain the stickers vs Heart/Star in detail, and without being able to watch certain scenes in slow motion I can't even tell if they're launched from the same place or if there are different launchers. But between thinking this over for a few days, and seeing _all_ of the scenes that feature them, I think I need to concede this one. Heart and Star are clearly made of rigid LEGO elements in the movie (even if the Star element doesn't actually exist as depicted, Heart is built from six elements in the movie and the sets), where the stickers are more clearly flexible. The stickers also show no signs of life, where all the Hearts and Stars can move around and talk. And explode. The stickers do exhibit a different, unrelated power, but I don't think that was revealed in any of the trailers.
DeleteBut even so, everything about the way they look just screams "sticker". I guess I just forgot how many real-world artifacts end up being repurposed for play in TLM, and looking at how Heart and Star are designed just feels like a LEGO representation of puffy stickers.
I've just experienced the new 92593 in LBG in the Speed Champions mini set btw. I'd now agree that it was modified for clutch, since it's much harder, & pretty different. I also hadn't noticed that parts like 44568 or 95120 already had the same underside, and since they're parts that need a lot of clutch, it's totally the reason.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly the set also features the old style, in DBG. You may think it's until Lego runs out of the old style, but the manual also seems to differenciate them.
Interesting. I assume there's no functional different between the ways they are used?
DeleteHmmm, I wonder if there'll be a Sweet Mayhem Systar spinoff theme in the works now when the Elves theme will get cancelled. In that case, as an old spacer, I find it could be interesting.
ReplyDeleteI think they'd really need to see how popular the character is first. Big risk to invest in a whole theme so soon I feel?
DeleteYeah, probably. I was just speculating...
DeleteThe white castle turret top appeared before in 6266 Cannon Cove, so it's not technically a new part; but still notable as it only appeared the one time 26 years ago!
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing that out! The mould number has changed in that time, so I didn't notice. Whoops!
Delete