Review + MOC: 71480 Logan the Mighty Panda & 71479 Zoey's Cat Motorcycle from LEGO® DREAMZzz™

Do you remember the ancient fable about a race between a cat and a panda? The one where the cat could turn into a motorcycle but the panda with bamboo guns was nevertheless still faster? No? Well may this LEGO® DREAMZzz™ review will shed some light on their story.

Products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
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71480 Logan the Mighty Panda

• Price: US$29.99/ £24.99/ 29.99€/ AU$49.99
• Pieces: 342
• Release date: 1 August 2024

LEGO DreamZzz 71480 Logan the Mighty Panda on LEGO.com

 

71479 Zoey's Cat Motorcycle

• Price: US$19.99/ £17.99/ 19.99€/ AU$29.99
• Pieces: 226
• Release date: 1 August 2024

LEGO DreamZzz 71479 Zoey’s Cat Motorcycle on LEGO.com

Parts in 71480 Logan the Mighty Panda

New moulds

• 4x Brick Round 3 x 3 D. Tube with 45° Elbow and Axle Holes (Crossholes) at Each End in Blue (6492756 | 5057)

The most interesting part is the new "maxi" macaroni tube which was analysed by TobyMac in New Elementary's introduction to the DreamZzz August wave of pieces. So far this set has the highest opaque colour count for this element. At the end of this article I'll explore its possibilities in MOC building. 

I'm slightly disappointed that the concave curve has three slight slot marks in it as I would have preferred a uniformly round surface. Five axle holes in both ends is a wonderfully sturdy connection, but a pin hole in the middle would have been optimal to allow for rotation with two of these connected. Criticisms aside, I'm happy this piece exists.

• 2x Large Figure Cover / Face with Two Studs in Olive Green (6491523 | 5276)

The second new mould is more specialised. It's likely designed to primarily be a printed faceplate, so these unprinted ones feel… well, honestly like unprinted repurposed faceplates. Though olive green is a nice colour at least.

• 1x Animal, Raven with a Black marbled pattern in Trans-Dark Pink (6466858 | 5272) - in each set of this wave
• 1x Dome 2 x 2 x 2 with Crystallized Top (6466880 | 5334) - in each set of this wave

These two parts appear in all sets in this wave. Again, they're quite specialised pieces so I'm not bursting with ideas for them. The bird is pretty at least, resembling liquorice with raspberry jelly candy mixed in.

New recolours

• 2x Wedge Curved 4 x 3 No Studs in Dark Tan (6343454 | 64225)
• 1x Weapon Barrel in Bright Green (6491850 | 77257)
  

The wedge in dark tan is very welcome and it's surprising it hasn't appeared sooner. Nice for human figures. The weapon barrel is quite the opposite: Boldly in bright green and far from universally useful.

• 6x Technic Brick Special 1 x 2 with Pin Hole and 1 x 2 Plate in Blue (6488776 | 73109) - also in 71485 Mateo and Z-Blob the Knight Battle Mech

Another mundane recolour in nice quantity.

New prints

• 1x Windscreen 6 x 6 x 3 Dome with Dual 2 Fingers with Blue Panda Pattern in White (6487099)

Grinning panda head hemisphere? With blue fur? I have hard time taking this piece seriously.

• 1x Tile 1 x 2 with Rock, Skull and Windmill Pattern in Trans-Light Blue (6523611) - also in 2 other DREAMZzz sets

I suppose these transparent tiles represent the characters' dreams, stolen by the ravens. It certainly looks like an interesting dream.

Rare Parts

• 14x Animal / Creature Body Part, Claw with Clip in Blue (6447238 | 3171) - also in 76257 Wolverine Construction Figure

I've built hundreds of character MOCs but I have not yet used these new-ish finger pieces. This has more than enough so soon I'll know how they fare.

• 1x Slope Curved 4 x 3 with 3 Layers, 1 x 3 Cutout on Underside in Blue (6421594 | 66955) - in 2 other sets
• 6x Plate Special 1 x 1 Rounded with Handle in Dark Azure (6481638 | 26047) - in 2 other sets
• 2x Technic Brick Special 2 x 2 with Ball Receptacle Wide and Axle Hole, No Arm Holes in Dark Blue (6479467 | 67696) - also in 76298 Iron Spider-Man Construction Figure

These parts don't make me feel blue: They'll all have their uses in my MOCs sooner or later. I'm especially happy to see the ball socket brick in various colours, as its earlier alternatives were locked to a handful of hues.

Sticker Sheet

The most prominent stickers (1 and 2) are applied to the unique dark tan wedges and the panda's chest so I left them out.

Minifigures in set 71480

In this set you get Logan and… Logan. At least one of them is evil. The name of the game in this wave is the evil versions of the heroes; a trope beaten to death in the superheroes genre. His name is Dogan, which is very close to Doğan, a Turkish name meaning Falcon.



The new parts on Evil Logan are:

• Shoulder piece with a Black mold pattern in Trans-Dark Pink (6508633 | 5332) - new mould (removed on the picture above the show the print)
• Head, Dogan in Magenta (6487096)
• Torso, Dogan in Black (6493258)
• Legs, Dogan in Magenta - Black hips (6487098)

The new pieces on Logan are:

• Head, Logan (6487093)
• Torso, Logan in Dark Blue (6493108)
• Legs, Dual-Moulded, Logan in Dark Azure/Bright Light Orange (6487095)

For some reason I left the hairpiece out of the picture, but yes normal Logan has the same black, swept hairdo as his nasty pal.

The completed set 71480

The finished product is a roughly square-shaped blue-white panda with a bamboo-themed (!) minigun. Despite its stubby proportions, it has a good range of movement, enabling dynamic posing. It's solid and easy to handle. 

There aren't any mechanical details, so I suppose it's a magical monster and not a mechanical vehicle. The tan and olive green parts form some sort of armour, making the wide shoulders even more square.

While the model is generally coherent, the sides and the back are somewhat noisy. I like the bright light orange details though, contrasting with the blue.

The so-called cockpit has enough room for Good Logan and his hockey stick and the dome has two joints that enable a perfectly closed angle. The hockey stick makes me think this blue, grinning panda looks quite a bit like an ice hockey team mascot. 

The alternative model is not very alternative - it just poses the panda on four legs, attaching the gun on its back and doesn't look very exciting. Many of the August 2024 DreamZzz sets have taken the alternative model idea further than the first wave, focusing on completely different designs. This is closer to the first wave in approach.

Logan's Mighty Panda lives up to its title. It's an intriguing, unique set, fun to handle and well-designed. I just can't take the printed dome head seriously, especially with its fixed grin. It's too much Sonic-core or something? A brick-built head would have been more believable. But on the other hand, this is unique and memorable and it closes the cockpit perfectly to hide the minifigure pilot. 

I don't love the overall design, but I do respect it. Even the stud shooter - which I generally consider a nuisance - fits the aesthetics.

Parts in 71479 Zoey's Cat Motorcycle

New moulds

• 1x Animal, Raven with a Black marbled pattern in Trans-Dark Pink (6466858 | 5272) - in each set of this wave
• 1x Dome 2 x 2 x 2 with Crystallized Top (6466880 | 5334) - in each set of this wave

As above. Prepare to see this picture again an again during the next months. Sadly, there are no other new moulds in the cat cycle.

New recolours

• 2x Brick Round 2 x 2 D. Tube with 45° Elbow and Axle Holes (Crossholes) at Each End [LONG] in Dark Blue (6510158 | 5489)
• 2x Brick Round 2 x 2 D. Tube with 45° Elbow and Axle Holes (Crossholes) at Each End [LONG] in Medium Azure (6510153 | 5489)

The old short version was available in both of these colours in 2023 LEGO DreamZzz sets - so nothing too exciting on the recolours section, either. But at least those big macaronis are inspiring and useful.

New prints

• 1x Tile 1 x 2 with Video Game Accessories Pattern in Trans-Purple (6523618) - in 3 other LEGO DREAMZzz sets
• 1x Large Figure Shoulder Cover with Futuristic Cat Pattern in Dark Blue (6487033)

The video game dream looks less exciting that the windmill with a huge skull in the Logan set. The cat faceplate is cool though. I could see myself using it just as it is on a figure.

Rare parts

• 1x Animal Body Part / Plant, Tail / Neck / Branch / Trunk, Middle Section with Pin in Medium Azure (6410520 | 51274) - also in 75572 Jake & Neytiri's First Banshee Flight
• 2x Technic Tooth 1 x 3 with Axle Hole [Hollow Underside] in Dark Blue (6434422 | 48267) - also in 42154 2022 Ford GT
• 2x Large Figure Shoulder Cover, Armor, Round, Smooth with Bar in Dark Blue (6510984 | 1686) - in 2 other sets

These rare parts don't make me feel blue either; they're all very welcome. Interestingly, the tail part still uses the old mould with the pin.

Sticker Sheet

The small sticker sheet has only four stickers. They're applied on common pieces and look nice so I used them.

Minifigures in 71479

Zoey is the hero of this set, with Evil Cooper ("Dooper") as the antagonist.

New parts in Zoey:

• Head, Zoey in Yellow (6487027)
• Torso, Zoey in Dark Blue (6490590)
• Legs, Zoey in Dark Blue (6487029)

I like the coral cat claw print on the legs. Zoey comes with an Avatar-style flick arrow bow and a rather clumsy-looking "quiver", aka trans-blue arrow connected to a trans-clear neck bracket via black clip tile.

The new pieces in Evil Cooper are:

• Hair Tousled and Sticking Out on Both Sides in Magenta (6490140) - recolour
• Shoulder piece with a Black mold pattern in Trans-Dark Pink (6508633 | 5332) - new mould (removed on the picture above the show the print)
• Head, Dooper in White (6487030)
• Torso, Dooper in Black (6490605)
• Legs, Dooper in Black (6487032)

The completed set 71479

Huge motorcycles are common in action and adventure themes. This takes the concept a bit further as the bike transforms into a car by removing the exhaust pipes and the wheels. The conversion is similar to 71456 Mrs. Castillo's Turtle Van and 71458 Crocodile Car of the first wave. In addition, there is an alternative model which uses the wheels as some sort of rotors. I skipped it.

The cycle is solid and has adjustable angles on its leg forks. I think Dooper stands no chance. The colours are decent; I especially like the faceplate print, the big medium azure wheels and the rounded shoulder armours.



The back feet work as stands. The bike is ready for transformation…

The cat mode is decent as well. The light bley technic connectors stand out a bit - blue hues or even black would have been better. But as the small ball sockets in the ankles are colour blocked to greys, getting rid of grey would have been impossible altogether.

I think that an elephant-sized magic cat is scarier than a similarly-sized motorcycle. Dooper agrees. This picture also reveals a little issue in all the sets in this wave: The dream domes carried by the ravens are impossible to display on their own, as the boat stud makes them unable to stay upright.

MOC: Zero Suit Samus

Colour schemes are one of the most interesting aspects of building to me. One of the colours I use very rarely is old, regular blue (officially named Bright Blue). It is very much a regular colour, the Platonic idea of blue - or maybe I think that because it's a colour I have grown up with? 

Anyway, it has never inspired me very much. In addition, there are many blue hues in the current palette (at least six!) compared to reds and yellows, that generally turn into pinks/purples or browns. But a fan of blue would be in hog heaven.

 

The main parts of interest were the 3x3 maxi-macaronis. I wanted to break out from the most stereotypical uses of them as tube and to incorporate them into larger shapes so that a viewer would forget they are macaroni. With the blue colour my mind turned to the Metroid heroine Samus Aran's Zero Suit. I built a Bionicle-based version of this character years back and, despite making several versions of the head, it didn't work out. I still have it built and away in a box, but it was time for a new version.

I chose a design based on the largely disliked Nintendo Wii game Other M (which I have never played) and a Max Factory figure based on it. The figure has a dynamic stance complete with flowing hair. 

The unique structure I was aiming for with the maxi macaronis required a fixed pose, and the Max Factory figure worked nicely as the starting point. I made some heavy changes to how she appears in the game though, making the proportions more realistic, the spine less bent and the torso more bulky.

The structure is indeed very different from anything I've done as it does not have a spine running in the middle. The main hub is inside the hips - 1x3 round plates with 3 T-bars. The bars can rotate freely but have decent friction. The legs are connected to them, as well as the convex curve of the hip, right side of the front view photo. The curved and hinged stomach panel is just applied on the front and the upper torso is connected to the macaronis. 

I mentioned earlier that I would have preferred the maxi-macaronis to have a pin hole in the middle and as 2L bars (without middle ring) do not exist, I had to apply a 3x3 round Technic pieces in dark azure in the middle to freely rotate the macaronis in relation to each other. This is of course required on a MOC like this.

The Zero Suit has a certain pattern of darker and lighter blues (and some pink highlights) but I ditched them on this seed-part-based model. I applied dark blue to the mid legs as it allowed me to finally use 47844 Windscreen 9 x 3 x 1 2/3 Bubble Canopy as the upper leg muscle; something I couldn't do on my Anonymous Person in Red Power Armour a while back because I only had one in red. The waist inevitably had some dark azure, so I used some more in the shins to be able to make the front edge rounded with the 1x4 "loaf" curved slopes. I'm quite happy with the colour patchwork.

 



Other pieces from the reviewed sets are the panda's fingers, blue Technic Plate/brick recolours in some structural uses and the cat cycle's shoulder pads as the buttocks. 

I've got to mention one obscure piece on the hair as well: 30596 Rock 2 x 2 with Centre Stud, positioned just after the red bobble. It's from Belville 5960 The Mermaid Castle from 2005. Who would have guessed that bright light yellow existed in 2005?

Conclusion

These are both decent sets with no glaring issues. The cat bike is somewhat mundane in terms of exciting parts, but is still above average as a parts pack with its many curved pieces and pretty medium azure wheels. The model is coherent and sturdy. The panda has exciting parts and it's nice to see four of the new maxi macaronis in a relatively inexpensive set. The built design is unique and ambitious and while I do not love it aesthetically, it's sturdy and fun to pose. The price per parts values of US$19.99/ £17.99/ 19.99€/ AU$29.99 for 226 parts in 71479 Zoey's Cat Motorcycle and US$29.99/ £24.99/ 29.99€/ AU$49.99 for 342 parts in 71480 Logan the Mighty Panda, with 2 minifigures on each, seem plausible.

LEGO DreamZzz 71480 Logan the Mighty Panda on LEGO.com

LEGO DreamZzz 71479 Zoey’s Cat Motorcycle on LEGO.com

READ MORE: What are the new LEGO® parts in October 2024 sets?

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