Lego Shoots & Scores With Their Newest Series - Lego NBA Collector Set 1
Written: Sep 20 '03 (Updated Sep 27 '03)
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Pros: Nice attention to detail, “spring-back” bodies, comes with collectable NBA card for each player.
Cons: Only three figures per set, gets expensive to collect them all.
The Bottom Line: Consider this a "must have" set for NBA fanatics, especially with the older styled Ray Allen / Milwaukee Bucks figure.
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| Freak369's Full Review: Lego NBA Collectors Set 1 |
Lego is once again breaking new ground with the addition of their NBA Collector sets to their sports line up. So far they’ve covered soccer, hockey and extreme sports and they’ve cooked up some nice sets for basketballs fans. While these sets are rather limited to what you can do with them, when combined with the larger full court sets, hours and hour of fun can be had. The biggest news about these sets is that they have a “spring-back” body, all that means is that there are springs inside the mini figures that allow them to snap back to the upright position – this is usually used them trying to get one of the players to shoot a ball into the basket. This isn’t really a new concept; it was used in the soccer series so players could move the balls across the playing field. One small piece of information, there are no individual hair pieces for any of the players in this set; all the hair is stenciled on the peg head which means its one less piece to lose but shaves a little off the individuality of the figures.
Lego Collector Set 1: Tim Duncan, Ray Allen & Pau Gasol
All of the sets in this mini figure collection feature three NBA players, a collectable team card with their statistics and pertinent information and a display stand. These are the same stands that were featured in all the other mini figure sets like the Star Wars and Ninja Mini Hero Collection. One small word about the collectable cards, these are stamped with the Lego Sport logo on them but are manufactured by Upper Deck, one of the leaders in premiere sport cards. These sets are not only great collector items but great gifts for NBA fanatics but be warned, these are not exactly inexpensive. With a suggested retail price of $5.99 per set, it leads me to wonder how long Lego will keep this part of the series alive and kicking. Let’s face it, these aren’t exactly flying off the shelves.
Tim Duncan # 21
San Antonio Spurs
Clad in a sharp white San Antonio Spurs uniform, Tim Duncan’s figure isn’t smiling but I’m sure that when he saw this little figure he has a smile that was ear to ear. Since we are dealing with basic Lego figures, there isn’t a tremendous amount of detail that can be added without losing the simplicity of the figure. Even so, there’s the slight presence of facial hair, tipped eyebrows and trimmed hair but a little uneven on the back for some reason. The downside to Tim’s Lego doppelganger is that it doesn’t reflect his size – 7’ tall and 255 pounds. This is one of the real negatives to Lego figures; they are almost all the same size and shape. There is a good bit of detail on this one and it does have a good resemblance to the Duncan but I am sure if he wasn’t in the uniform you’d have a hard time picking out exactly who he was when compared to others figures from this collector series.
Ray Allen # 34
Milwaukee Bucks
This might be a great figure to collect since it features Allen in his Milwaukee Bucks uniform before he was traded to the Seattle Supersonics for the 2002 – 2003 season. The uniform is a nice shade of blue with gray stenciled detail [team log and player number]. Allen’s Lego counterpart has a huge grin, lots of facial detail and looks great when placed on the display stand with his team card as a backdrop. Overall the figure bears a little resemblance to Allen but again, if he didn’t have his uniform on, you’d have a hard time telling which player it represented. If you are only interested in purchasing this figure, you can pick it up for about $4.00 from various brick vendors that specialize in individual pieces or figures.
Pau Gasol # 16
Memphis Grizzlies
While this figure has the most amount of detail on the uniform as well as facially, it really looks nothing like the real life Pau Gasol who stands 7’ tall and weighs in at 200 pounds. The uniform carries several shades of green with a light trim and just like all the other collectable figures in this series, has his name and number stenciled on the back. Since this is the darkest uniform in this set, the small Lego imperfections are a little more evident. The pressing marks on the front and backs of the legs are an eyesore but thankfully these are only visible when you are extremely close to the figure, more than five inches from it and it looks great.
Lego NBA Collector Sets
There are a total of eight sets in this mini figure series. They contain some of the most popular players in the NBA and are considered a must have for basketball fans. Along with the mini figure sets there are full court, practice and one on one sets also available.
Lego NBA Collector Set 1 - [3560] - Duncan, Allen, Gasol
Lego NBA Collector Set 2 - [3561] - O’Neal, Parker, Walker
Lego NBA Collector Set 3 - [3562] - Carter, Payton, Nowitzki
Lego NBA Collector Set 4 - [3563] - Bryant, Kidd, Kukoc
Lego NBA Collector Set 5 - [3564] - Iverson, Francis, Malone
Lego NBA Collector Set 6 - [3565] - Pierce, Stackhouse, Nash
Lego NBA Collector Set 7 - [3565] - Garnett, Stojackovic, Rose
Lego NBA Collector Set 8 - [3567] - Houston, Webber, McGrady
The Bottom Line
This is the first of eight in the Lego NBA Collector Set series and should be considered a must have for basketball junkies. I picked up several of these sets at the San Diego ComiCon for half the suggested retail price because the boxes were busted in at the sides – for $3.00 a piece I could deal with that but did open them after I purchased them to make sure that all the players, cards and stands were actually in the box. Considering that these have a $5.99 suggested retail price, it might be wise to wait a while and see if the price drops. When the Lego Soccer sets were sitting on the shelves too long, many retailers opted to put them on sale, then clearance, just to get rid of them. If you are looking to collect pristine sets that won’t be opened, your best bet is to check with local toy stores to see when they receive their toy shipments so you can get them fresh from the case before they are ticketed or shelved.
The Stats
Set Name: Lego Collector Set 1
Family Set: Lego NBA Collector Series
Lego Set: 3560
Number of Pieces: 12
Age Recommendation: 6 - 12
Ease Of Assembly: Easy
Time Of Assembly: 5 minutes
Cost: $ 5.99
As always, thanks for the read!
^V^ Freak ^V^
© 2003 Freak369
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $3.00
Type of Toy: Blocks
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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