“Compliments of the season to you, fellow dinosaur lovers! Yes, it is us once again, Dr. Bella Bricking and Beth Buildit. We’ve certainly had quite the busy year thanks to the Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom sets! But for this review, we’re leaving all that behind and heading off on a completely different expedition! Are you all bundled up, Beth?”
“Yeah, Doc, but I don’t get why we have to dress up like this when we’re clearly indoors.”
“It’s all about setting the correct atmosphere, Beth. Now, as I already mentioned, today’s review subject is not part of JW:FK. Instead, it’s part of LEGO City’s 2018 Arctic subtheme. You see, while most City sets are, naturally, based around urban life, some are designed to take place well outside of any metropolis. In 2015, there were space sets. In 2016, volcano research sets. In 2017, jungle exploration sets. And for 2018, we have a team of my fellow paleontologists excavating prehistoric mammals preserved in Arctic ice! Behold, Beth, I give you the biggest of these sets and the subject of our review, the Arctic Mobile Exploration Base!”
“786 pieces?! Are you kidding me, Doc?”
“Oh, I may be slightly batty in my belfry, but I never kid, Beth! Let’s get to it!”
“Alright, but can I at least get a holiday bonus for this?”
“Now, now, Beth, you know perfectly well that you can’t receive a holiday bonus when you’re not being paid in the first place!”
“Well, here’s the reason we’re able to get away with this review being on the DTB, Doc: a woolly mammoth! LEGO’s done plenty of dinosaur (and pterosaur!) figures over the years, and plenty more modern animals to boot, but this is their very first prehistoric mammal! It’s made up of eight pieces total and once built, measures about 7.5 cm tall and 11 cm long. But those ginormous tusks increase the length to 19 cm! That’s quite the set!”
“Goodness, yes, Beth! However, it must be noted that a real woolly mammoth’s tusks were shorter and much more curved than these ones. My professional hypothesis is that they would be better suited for a Palaeoloxodon. Nevertheless, this figure is absolutely unmistakable as a Mammuthus primigenius. It features a domed cranium, small ears, high shoulders, and, naturally, thick sculpted fur. It also boasts a sculpted mouth and toes! Unsurprisingly, this figure is coloured medium brown all over with tiny black and white eyes and white tusks.”
“This mammoth definitely isn’t a stiff, Doc. Sure, the legs don’t move, but the head is on a universal hinge joint, the trunk rotates, and the tusks rotate in two places to adjust their look. The back has two sets of 2 x 2 studs for attaching minifigures or bricks, the feet can snap on to any studded surface, and the tip of the trunk also has a single stud.”
“Most impressive, Beth! This mammoth will undoubtedly please LEGO fans of all ages!”
“Whoa, steady there, boy!”
“And now, my faithful Beth, it is once again time for us to build! To work, we go!”
“Are we done yet, Doc?”
“We’re off to a good start, Beth, but we have much, much more building to do! Keep those mighty muscles of yours going!”
“Are we done yet, Doc?”
“We’re doing beautifully, Beth! We are chugging along at a steady and efficient pace! Onward!”
“Are we done yet, Doc?”
“Our task is more than half complete. Don’t let up now, Beth!”
“Are we done yet, Doc?”
“NO, WE ARE NOT!”
“Just asking. Sheesh.”
“Right then, now we are done! First of all, here are the four male and two female members of the paleontological team. They are all done up in cold weather apparel of azure and orange and are equipped with a variety of essentials: ice axes, snowshoes, circular saws, a jackhammer, a radio, and mugs for hot beverages. A couple of large crates are provided for storing these items when not in use.”
“Huh. Looks like someone else shares your taste in headgear, Doc.”
“Indeed, with such impeccable taste in fashion, I can only assume that he leads the team, Beth. Now here is a large body of ice and snow within which the mammoth can be placed as though it has been frozen for thousands of years. A great many frozen mammoths have been discovered over the centuries, including adults such as the Jarkov specimen and the Yukagir specimen and juveniles such as Lyuba and Yuka. One mature specimen discovered in 2013 was even found to have preserved blood in liquid form! I must hasten to note, however, that none of these specimens were found in anywhere near as good a state of preservation as this figure appears to be in!”
“Yeah, well, I don’t think a rotting mammoth corpse would go over all that great with some kids and their parents, Doc! Pretty clever how those four big pieces of ice and snow are designed to pop off easily. You can just pretend that the mammoth managed to survive being frozen for all this time, suddenly woke up, and smashed its way out of the ice!”
“Or, Beth, you could cut through the surrounding ice with this impressive contraption! An enormous free-spinning buzz saw mounted on a sturdy all-terrain vehicle. The large rubberized tires allow the single operator to traverse every surface from smooth flooring to thick carpeting and the saw arm is hinged in two places so that it can fold up when not in use.”
“Ohhhhhh, this baby would be great for a demolition derby. Or for getting through rush hour traffic! Or for making sure that nobody jacks our designated parking spot ever again!”
“Curb your ferocious tendencies, my dear Beth. Here is a snow bike with moving treads and a large sled upon which the bike can be transported when not in use, along with the storage crates. The sled can also be used to transport the mammoth, but we’ll touch more on that later on!”
“And this, Doc, is the mobile base itself! Kinda on the small side, wouldn’t you say?”
“Admittedly so, but it is nevertheless packed with impressive detail. The exterior features an opening door, housings for tools on the back, and a rotating satellite dish on the roof. Inside we find a table for examining fossils, a coffee machine, a wall-mounted monitor, and a single cot mounted on the rear wall. Are you comfortable up there, Beth?”
“Very relieved not to suffer from claustrophobia, Doc.”
“And finally, here is the largest vehicle in this set, a 6 x 6 mobile crane! It too is capable of rolling over virtually any surface in your home (or outdoors for that matter) thanks to its massive tires. The spacious interior has seating for both a driver and an operator. The crane rotates a full 360 degrees in either direction and the boom raises and lowers by turning the black gears on the base.”
“Ah yes, and this is how we haul the mammoth out of the ice and then place it onto the sled, isn’t it? Pretty swell play feature, Doc!”
“Indeed, Beth. The crane can also be used to haul the storage crates. And finally, the four large vehicles can link together to form a single train. Overall, I believe that the Arctic Mobile Exploration Base is everything a LEGO set should be: challenging to build, immensely fun to play with, and, of course, offering the potential to devise new creations of one’s own imagination. The six minifigures all have superb detail and the woolly mammoth is a wonderful and unique addition to anyone’s collection!”
“Can’t argue that, Doc. But keep in mind that this set doesn’t come cheap. It retails for $149.99 Canadian, so if you’re only interested in the mammoth, then you’d better be prepared to shell out for it. But you’re into both prehistory and LEGO, then you’ll really get a kick out of this set. It’s available at LEGO.com, LEGO stores, or pretty much any chain that stocks LEGO.”
“Astute as always, my dear Beth. Well, fellow dinosaur, or in this case, prehistory lovers, it certainly has been a fun and most busy year for the two of us here on the Dinosaur Toy Blog. We thank you all and we wish you the happiest of holidays! Cheerio!”
“So long, folks! See you sometime in 2019!”
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I am always delighted when we get a review from Doc and Beth. Thank you for doing these!
My pleasure! They will be appearing at least a couple of times this year!
I have seen this set at my local toy shop and the set which contains a Smilodon, also from Lego. A very detailed review. The tusks are oddly long for a Woolly Mammoth, I think they should be shorter and more curved.
My best holiday wishes to all members of the DinosaurToyBlog and the Forum also.
It also seems like Lego is recreating Playmobil’s retired Woolly Mammoth set and the Smilodon set, which I think is good. Some of us may not have been able to get the Playmobil sets, but now, Lego is giving us an opportunity.
This set is ideal to give a child at Christmas. Both Lego and other similar companies (for example Playmobil are good gift ideas for children and even interesting for adult collectors.
Lego is a well-known company of all the life and sincerely this mammoth demonstrates that they make figures of prehistoric animals and ideal dinosaurs in details and that at the same time (that is the important thing) they serve of amusement and of a creative space great especially for the smallest of the house.