Review: 71485 Mateo and Z-Blob the Knight Battle Mech from LEGO® DREAMZzz™

A big mech calls for a big name and 71485 Mateo and Z-Blob the Knight Battle Mech is certainly a long one for this 1333-piece set. Though I can't help but think simply going with Mateo and Z-Blob the Knight Mech would have been enough. Surely 'Knight' and 'Mech' suggests battling is a given, right? We might never know, but by reading this article you will know if this LEGO® DREAMZzz™ set is worthy of the Round Table of New Elementarian Knights. 

Products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
This article contains affiliate links to LEGO.com; we may get a small commission if you purchase.

71485 Mateo and Z-Blob the Knight Battle Mech

• Release date: 1 August 2024
• Pieces: 1333

Price:

• US$ 129.99 on LEGO.com US
• CA$ 169.99 on LEGO.com Canada
• GB£ 114.99 on LEGO.com UK
• AU$ 199.99 on LEGO.com Australia
• NZ$ 219.99 on LEGO.com New Zealand
• DE€ 129,99 on LEGO.com Deutschland
• NL€ 129,99 on LEGO.com Nederland
• FR€ 129,99 on LEGO.com France
• PLN 599.99 on LEGO.com Polska
• NOK 1779,90 on LEGO.com Norge
• DKK 1149.95 on LEGO.com Danmark

Other countries click here

As of 12 November 2024, individual pieces from set 71485 are available on LEGO® Pick a Brick

Interesting parts 

New moulds

• 6x Brick Round 2 x 2 D. Tube with 45° Elbow and Axle Holes at Each End in Trans-Bright Green (6466833 | 5057)

The new 'Maxi-Macaroni' is still unique to the LEGO DREAMZzz theme and this set has the largest quantity. The transparent one looks striking with its visible axle hole structure, however I struggle to find uses for these translucent parts. For a closer look at its measurements you can check out the LEGO DREAMZzz August wave introduction article by TobyMac.

• Large Figure Cover / Face with Two Studs with Determined Warrior Pattern in Trans-Bright Green (6487052)
• Weapon Hilt with Bar, Hourglass with Trans-Bright Green Bar in Pearl Gold (6501460 | 5330) - in 3 other sets

These special pieces are no easier to use. I don't like the design of the Blob Knight's face print; it's too cool and serious. It reminds me of Knight Kingdom II Jayko.

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

Anyone who has read our previous DREAMZzz August wave reviews should be familiar with these pieces by now!

Recolours

• 12x Technic Brick Special 1 x 2 with Pin Hole and 1 x 2 Plate in Blue (6488776 | 73109) - also in 71480 Logan the Mighty Panda

Quite a mundane piece, but it can prove to be a lifesaver in specific, tricky situations.

 

• Dish 10 x 10 Inverted, Solid Studs, Squared Anti-stud Underside, Anti-Studs on Edges in Trans-Bright Green (6488774 | 50990b, 35326)
• Windscreen 6 x 8 Curved in Trans-Bright Green (6508816 | 5274)
• Windscreen 6 x 8 Curved in White (6508815 | 5274)

I made a small goof here: I built the Blob Walker Mech model (I'll call it the B-model) before shooting the pieces, so the Trans-Bright Green one has the eye stickers attached. It is actually unprinted, and the A-Model and the centaur (which I did not build) don't use these stickers. This is problematic, as you can't really switch between the models without removing, storing and re-applying the stickers, which is cumbersome if not impossible. But they're nice stickers though, and this simple windscreen face is more amiable than the Jayko-like cool knight visor above. I'll return to this later.

New prints

• Windscreen 6 x 8 Curved with Graffiti Graphics Pattern in White (6508361)
• Tile 1 x 2 with Castle Pattern in Trans-Orange (6523620) - also in 71483 The Never Witch's Nightmare Creatures

The windscreen has an excess of decoration. It's interesting and distinct, but not very easy to re-use. 

This stolen dream tile is one of the rarer ones.

Rare parts

• 6x Brick Round Corner, Curved 3 x 3 x 1 Quarter Circle in Blue (6441096 | 76797) - in 2 other sets

• 2x Slope Curved 4 x 3 with 3 Layers, 1 x 3 Cutout on Underside in Dark Azure (6392009 | 66955) – also in 71775 Nya's Samurai X MECH
• 2x Plate Special 1 x 1 Rounded with Handle in Dark Azure (6481638 | 26047) - in 2 other sets
• Slope Curved 3 x 2 with Stud Notch Left in Vibrant Coral (6448724 | 80177) - also in 41737 Beach Amusement Park
• Slope Curved 3 x 2 with Stud Notch Right in Vibrant Coral (6448725 | 80178) - also in 41737 Beach Amusement Park
• 2x Bracket 1 x 2 - 1 x 2 Inverted in Bright Light Orange (6494409 | 99780) - also in 71814 Tournament Temple City (read our review by Caz Mockett)

• 4x Brick Round Corner 6 x 6 x 2 in White (6488780 | 87559) - also in 80026 Pigsy's Noodle Tank

It's surprising that this piece is not more common in white, so it's nice to see another appearance.

Sticker sheet

The sticker sheet is quite big, with 3 additional ones. The most prominent (and nice!) are the eye ones, used on the B-Model. I already mentioned them and I'll return to this issue again. I didn't apply the other ones, but you can see the stickered version on the affiliate link at the beginning of this article.

Minifigures

This set features four minifigures, one 'Little Dude' and one doggo with a minifigure head; quite average for a set of this size. Three of the four regular minifigures also appear in the magnificent line-up of set 71483 The Never Witch's Nightmare Creatures (see review by me). 

Sadly, although many parts from this set are now on LEGO® Pick a Brick, no minifigure elements have been included.

 

Hooded Logan is the only unique minifigure in this set, and his hood (6493927) is the only unique minifigure part here; the rest of him appeared in 71480 Logan the Mighty Panda (review by me, too). 

Those parts are:

• Head, Logan (6487093)
• Torso, Logan (6493108)
• Legs, Dual-Moulded, Logan (6487095)

Mateo gets a huge, Ghostbusters-esque weapon that connects firmly to the stud on the back of the new puffer jacket (6491524 | 5275). 

The body parts of Mateo are:

• Legs dual-moulded Mateo (6526487)
• Torso Mateo (6493455)
• Head Mateo (6487046)
• Hair Mateo (6487055)

It's a fun idea to have bad versions of the heroes as their adversaries, but it makes the minifigure line-up feel smaller, as many ideas appear twice.

Once again, the set has a Dogan. The new pieces are:

• Legs Dogan (6487098)
• Torso Dogan (6493258)
• Shoulder Wear (6508633 | 5332)
• Head Dogan (6487096)

Madteo consists of following parts:

• Legs Madteo (6526493)
• Torso Madteo (6493621)
• Jacket Madteo (6491525 | 5275)
• Head Madteo (6487049)
• Hair Madteo (6487056, pictured further up)

The little bad guys are nothing too exciting. Both of them appear in 4 other sets; Snivel being introduced in the first wave in 2023 and Sneak in the following 2024 wave. Their appearance feels quite random as such. Fortunately Snivel is probably the best of the evil Little Dudes in this theme.

Sneak and Snivel are available on Pick a Brick.

A-Model: The Knight Mech

Like most of the sets of this DREAMZzz wave, 71485 Mateo and Z-Blob the Knight Battle Mech takes alternative builds seriously. First you build the "mech core" which is a cockpit reminiscent of some small Star Wars ship. Then you decide the model you want to build - the knight mech, the centaur mech or the blob walker. I skipped the centaur, as it seemed to share many of the issues of the knight mech while having even less posing possibilities. Building the walker after the knight mech was a relief though and improved the performance of this set.

At first sight the A-Model checks some worthwhile boxes: It's an original design, it's pretty big, vibrant and not too serious. It has presence, its silhouette is distinct and the trans-bright green pops nicely.

It also has issues, many of which are apparent when trying to play with it. Mechs of this size have weight. Fortunately, it has no problems in standing upright. Unfortunately, this means the only real leg joint is on the hip; the ankle merely helps to angle the feet towards the ground.



The lower leg ascends directly upwards from the foot, which is proper for a neutral human stances. Here though, completed with the 45 degree angle of the maxi-macaroni, it means the hip joint and the torso of the mech are floating over nothing. The wheels sticking out from the back of the feet keep it from toppling backwards, but the pose looks like it's about to. This is unsatisfactory; it looks feeble and undynamic like it's leaning on an invisible wall. This is not a minor thing! Posture is important.

In general, the proportions are wobbly and pretty random. The torso length-to-width ratio (with the mini-gun shoulders) is beyond Inika-builds. The lower legs are huge – and indeed, blob-like – while the upper legs are rounded. Such exaggerated shapes could be a viable, original motif, but I feel that here, they have been searched for but not found.

The neck is hunched, the head doesn't connect from its base (as with humans) but rather on the back of the head (as with snakes). The position of the Mixels ball cups means that the head can't turn at all. It can't nod, nor look upwards, but it can go round like an office-worker stretching their shoulders.

 



As for the arms? I like the big mittens and the means of connecting the sword, and the shield is well-designed. The only joints are on the shoulders and the wrists, though it's enough to allow the wrists to move decently for some dynamic posing. 

However, the Gatling guns on the shoulders are once again a nuisance for the adult fan (with fond memories of LEGO Technic cannons in their childhood): They inflate the part count, fall off easily, and don't pack enough force to shatter any fortifications…



But the major issue is, once again, the angle of the macaronis. This uses two, which means a sausage angle of a fixed 90°. I'm okay with the sausage shape with no joints, as this is a blob-mech after all, but 90° fixed is not a dynamic arm shape. The same issue was on LEGO® BIONICLE® Stars Tahu, a Bionicle with a similar arm shape and a longsword. Making downward slashes with an arm like this is awkward. Try it: Keep your elbow at a 90° angle and try to slash imagined orcs with an imagined sword. Not very easy, is it?

I tried to make a hot fix by moving a macaroni from the arm to the leg. The arm is more efficient with only one macaroni and 45 degrees, but I couldn't get the legs working with these angles.

B-Model: The Blob Walker

Fortunately, there is the B-model. 

This is officially known as Street Battle Mech and reminds me of the ED-209 robot from Robocop. I like this model a lot more, although it's not free of issues.

Foremost, this model looks amiable: away with the Jayko-esque faceplate, the simple windscreen with the eye stickers is cute in a Moomin-like way. Indeed, they are stickers, and they are not applied on the A-Model, so you can convert A to B without issues, but B to A means removing the stickers (or giving the A-Model an extra pair of eyes, which isn't really that bad). 

I think there should have been a better solution for this. I would have been fine with the stickers being officially on all models. The current situation might be irritating for die-hard collectors. 

Overall, the rounded shapes work a lot better on this model, as they fit the cute "head" design seamlessly. I also like the large round thingies on the back as they form a very bulky silhouette. Moving the mini-guns to the arms means fewer posing options, but I prefer them this way. The shapes and angles of the legs are not an issue here, as the walker can lean forward (while still looking plausibly looming) and the very short upper legs mean that the hips are not too far back in relation to the feet.

There are issues here, too. The hip joints don't have quite enough stability to carry the weight and they give up and topple occasionally. The posing options are again limited, and the heavy shoulder pad things are very loose, being connected only with a single ball joint. 

The original knight mech faceplate, with an alternative head design, is hidden in the cockpit. While not a practical issue, it nonetheless feels unnecessary. 

Something that irritated me a bit on both of the models – and some other recent LEGO DREAMZzz sets,  as pointed out in my previous review – is the unfocused colour blocking. The colours are nice overall, but the three blues – standard, dark azure and medium azure – are combined very randomly. There are odd grey and black pieces all over. 

In addition, some of the minor shapes just end abruptly. This can be seen most clearly on the back image of the B-Model, around the waist area, under the shoulder pads and below the knees. I suppose this is partly due to limits of the alternative model design (though these issues are also apparent in the A-Model), which is made even more complicated by the sequence of the bags while building. These issues certainly didn't trouble the August 2023 wave, which felt very polished. 

I appreciate the alternative model function but I'd also like to see more investment of the details and the finish.

Conclusion

It should be clear at this point that I'm not happy with this set. It has potential, it has ambition, it's original and encourages creative play; all of which are worthwhile aspects. But the design doesn't reach its goals. 

The main model is unsatisfactory. The B-Model is decent, but has some issues and is not worth the US$129.99/ £114.99/ 129.99€/ AU$199.99 price tag. 1333 pieces, 4 minifigures and 2 little dudes is alright, but there are no unmissable pieces here. The alternative model aspect is good, and major enough to be more than a gimmick, but even it should be supported by better set design.

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READ MORE: Pick a Brick: surprise early release of December elements including LEGO DREAMZzzz

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