For true Lego diehards- the Doctor Who sets from “Character Building” (an arm of COBI, a Polish toy company) and therefore do not use real Lego bricks. I knew that going in, but they are Doctor Who which is really what this should be all about. When visiting the warehouse for WHONA in Indianapolis, I decided to pick myself up a present (a birthday present, my precious) SO after looking at a number of “Lego” Doctor Who kits, I went for the TARDIS Interior which came with mini figs of the 11th Doctor, Amy Pond, Rory Williams, & River Song. Previously, I had purchased online a TARDIS set with the 11th Doctor & Amy, and the complete set of all the Doctors. The TARDIS was a simple build and very small so it really didn’t give me a feel for what building with CB bricks was like. This mega-set did, and I now understand the double entendre in the name (building with these bricks was, at times, “character building”).
The set itself is the interior of the 11th Doctor’s TARDIS which has a slightly steampunky feel to it. Unlike the TARDIS from Christopher Eccleston & David Tennant which was more of a natural construction, the pillars looking like they might be coral. This TARDIS is “shiny.” All in all it is a nice set when it is finished… but the building process and instructions that’s another story.
The Build
CB instructions are interesting in that they remove the color from any previous steps this is a help, but also a hinderance in construction. It helps because you know exactly which pieces are going where. When building the Sopwith Camel it sometimes became a game of “Where’s Waldo” to figure out where a piece went. By having the bricks you use for a step the only bricks in color, it makes it simple. The problem is when you need to check your construction as you move along in the process. In Lego you just look over the illustration and you can see all the pieces and how they fit. In CB I found the need to go back to the page in which I constructed certain parts to make sure it was correct. This back & forth did become a bit annoying. As the build continued I noticed a few things about the instructions, they seem to have missed a few key things that would have helped with the rigidity of the structure. In Lego you start building things and you overlap bricks creating a rigid structure, these directions ended up with larger pieces that were barely holding together. Adding one more connection would add stability. There is still a portion of the TARDIS wall that if I try to reattach it the entire wall breaks! I think the plan could have used someone who had been through the Lego Master Building Academy.
The actual bricks, seemed to feel different, I’m guessing they are lighter and therefore they felt flimsy… from what I could tell they weren’t, but I had the impression that they just seemed a little subpar. CB also created a number of specialty bricks for this build to create the angles needed for the interior. Unfortunately I discovered that unlike Lego bricks these bricks didn’t connect as well and while I am used to putting two bricks together in Lego and knowing that it will take some effort to separate them, in some places these disconnected effortlessly, overall this lead to a less than satisfactory building experience. Again back to one specific portion which I had to rebuild numerous times because every time I tried to attach it,the wall crumbled once the slightest pressure was put on it.
While there is always a bit of overage in any kit I was a little distraught when I got to one instruction and couldn’t find the pieces I needed! This was not my typical “teeny tiny” piece hiding in a pile. I was looking for two large grey planks. They just never made it in the box. What did make it were the exact same sized clear planks that fortunately were extra pieces. These were a middle portion of a layer being used as the floor so they were hidden from sight, but that still made me concerned, and I wasted time going over and over the instructions to see if I had read something wrong.
Final Thoughts
I am happy with the final result, just a little leery about moving it anywhere. Will I buy any more sets? Probably not, right now I’m torn between two different Lego sets, but feel I should probably finish the Lego Master Builder Academy before moving on to any other builds. I did end up picking up some Doctor Who mini figs from series 1 & 2. The CB mini figs are not the generic Lego design which is neat, but also makes it impossible to put them in a Lego build without having them stick out like a sore thumb, Then again having an army of Daleks and Cybermen is cool.