Whilst watching the joys of golden parenting on instagram and what felt like the entire southern part of England enjoying their half term holidays last week, Mrs F and I were starting to wonder what to plan for the children for when half term reached the sunny Staffordshire region the following week. Thankfully, as it happens, an email dropped in my inbox from national toy retailer Smyths, asking if H would be interested in reviewing some of the new LEGO
The LEGO City range is by far H’s favourite franchise, I think its due to the fact he finds it so easy to relate to all the sets, whether it be the fact his first ever LEGO set was from the LEGO City Underwater range or that he really loves the Police range and accompanying PS4 game, it just seems to click.
Usually our LEGO builds tend to follow a familiar pattern, starting off with a joint build session before H would typically get distracted/bored with the build, allowing a very happy Dad to complete the builds alone at night. The Following day H would then enjoy the finished build, re-enacting various scenes he’d thought up using his imagination whilst awaiting the finished article.
When the LEGO City Mining parcel turned up from Smyths Toys, it didn’t take H long to get excited, given the fact it was sporting some Smyths Toys tape around it. As soon as he saw the contents he wanted to get stuck in and in-fact took advantage of some half term late nights by starting off his first build, the LEGO City 60186 Mining Heavy Driller. This 294 piece set was the second biggest of the collection and did have me thinking he’d bitten off more than he could chew however I was amazed at both his concentration and his enthusiasm when two hours later he finished for the night nearly 80% completed before finishing it off the next morning.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take time off from my day job during this half term but the LEGO building continued over the next few days with the completion of both the smaller sets, LEGO City 60184 Mining Team and LEGO City 60185 Mining Power Splitter. The now fully accomplished LEGO builder was ready to take on the largest of these exclusive sets only available at Smyths, the LEGO City 60188 Mining Experts Site.
This set comes complete with 5 instruction booklets and 9 separate bags to build so you know its no walk in the park. Its piece count comes in at 883 and includes 6 mini figures, 2 small mining vehicles, a mine scene complete with blow up cave and mine tracks. All these are dwarfed though by its main event, a mega structure mining grinder with turning grinding wheels! H absolutely amazed me as he spent the next day and half continuing to build this, pyjama’s or clothed, he preferred to spend his free time carrying on to complete this, in fact he didn’t want to do anything else. No iPad, TV or Internet in sight.
Its not just the LEGO which he’s enjoyed though, H has been learning all about mining along the way too, asking both Mrs F and I about what and where gold mining happens, relating mining to local closed down mines in the area and improving his knowledge too.
H loves this new dimension to his LEGO City Mining collection and is already thinking about how he can adapt his bedroom into a LEGO City creating zones for the different sets. I love how the sets have interactive parts such as the drill motions, blowing up parts, moving mine carts and rotating grinders, not a battery in sight! All sets from the smallest to the largest have great playability and include mini figures, the odd glow in the dark spider and of course golden nuggets to mine for.
These LEGO City Mining sets are exclusive to Smyths Toys, both in-store and online and range from £79.99 through to £9.99 so theres a set for everyone. For more information on these and more LEGO sets, check out their website now. With free click and collect and free delivery on all LEGO orders over £15 you could be mining for your own LEGO gold like we were this half term.
Until next time
NB: We were provided with the above mentioned LEGO City Mining sets in exchange for an honest review. All opinions above are our own.