Sometimes things don’t go exactly as planned. Though I bought and built The LEGO Movie Benny’s Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP! 70816 set almost a full two weeks and intended to get it reviewed instantly, a combination of work, family, and the flu conspired to keep me from giving my favorite LEGO set of the year its due. But with LEGO 70816 Benny’s Spaceship officially available for order as of today, there was no way I could delay any longer. And as you might expect from one of the most important set releases in the entire LEGO Movie theme, everything is awesome about LEGO Benny’s Spaceship 70816…

The Right:

When I was walking into the movie theater to see The LEGO Movie in February, I had set my expectations for the movie pretty low. I thought that the trailers were juvenile and I was highly skeptical of the praise The LEGO Movie had received from critics. I didn’t expect to fall completely and utterly in love with The LEGO Movie in the way I did, and I certainly never thought that my most-anticipated and favorite LEGO set of 2014 was going to be anything from the movie. I was wrong.

I was determined to purchase and build The LEGO Movie Spaceship Spaceship SPACESHIP! set the moment that it hit stores, and that’s why I grabbed it off the shelf at my local Toys R Us the second I saw it in the store and went straight to check out. I didn’t look for coupons or gift codes–nothing. I wanted this set so bad that the price was not a concern (and that’s something I promise I say very, very rarely).

After calling up my wife and getting her blessing to purchase a $100 LEGO set (after the fact), I raced home and built my LEGO Movie grail. I am not a fast builder–at all–so it took me around four hours of nonstop work to build the LEGO 70186 Benny’s Spaceship set. It’s not a difficult build at all and the instructions are very clear, but younger builders (and me) are going to have to spend about four hours building the 940 pieces of LEGO 70816.

And as fate would have it, I’m not disappointed in the least with The 70186 LEGO Movie Benny’s Spaceship Spaceship Spaceship set. The set has an incredibly retro, 80’s feel to it, and is primarily composed of pure blue bricks that no space exploration company ever would build their spaceship out of. In short, it’s an absolutely perfect representation of Benny’s Spaceship as it appeared in The LEGO Movie (or, at least it is as I remember it).

While it costs about a hundred bucks, The LEGO Movie Benny’s Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP! set doesn’t feel like a ripoff in the slightest. This spaceship is gigantic, measuring 20″ (over a foot and a half!) long and 16″ wide. It’s a humongous set, and you’d better make sure you have some shelf space allocated before you build the retro-styled beauty that is LEGO Benny’s SPACESHIP!

There are a ton of features to the 70816 Benny’s Spaceship LEGO set–so many that I’m genuinely worried I won’t be able to give each the credit that they’re due.

Benny’s SPACESHIP is an extremely solid and stable LEGO set, and you can fly it around your bedroom, home or backyard without any fear of it crumbling to pieces (at least as long as you’re careful not to drop it on the ground or anything risky like that).

Each of the wings on 70186 LEGO Benny’s Spaceship feature a detachable wing flyer mini-ship which can be disconnected from the main SPACESHIP! and fly solo on their own. These are a bit basic, but totally fun inclusions that any kid is going to have an absolute blast with.

The translucent yellow cockpit on Benny the Space Man’s spaceship opens (obviously), and you can place up to three minifigures inside of the cockpit. You can’t fit Astro Kitty Uni-Kitty into any of the three sets, but that’s okay–she’s got her own perfectly-sized computer control center right behind the cockpit hatch!

70816 LEGO Benny’s Spaceship even looks excellent from the rear, as all three booster engines are detailed with translucent LEGO elements. You can push in the bottom booster in order to extend the spaceship wings and make the ship even bigger, a feature that works fluidly and will put a smile on anyone’s face!

In addition to all of that, the Benny’s Spaceship Spaceship Spaceship LEGO Movie set also features a ton of weaponry, including a pair of flickfire missiles, spring-loaded space cannons, spring-loaded laser shooters, and even a pair of the new-for-2014 LEGO stud blasters. This is one deadly spaceship you don’t wanna mess with!

70186 LEGO Movie Benny’s Spaceship Spaceship Spaceship includes five minifigures–which isn’t a ton for a $100 set. Even so, this set’s minifigure selection is pretty outstanding, as four of the five minifigures are exclusives and the fifth is a rare release!

The only minifigure that comes with LEGO Benny’s Spaceship 70186 that’s available with another set is the LEGO Benny Minifigure that also comes with the $250 LEGO Metalbeard’s Sea Cow set. Now, seeing as how Benny is an absurdly popular character and not everyone wants to shell out $250 for that set, I’m perfectly okay with Benny being repacked with this set. And come on–it’s not like LEGO could not include Benny with his own dream spaceship(!), right?

In addition to the LEGO Benny the Spaceman Minifigure, Benny’s Spaceship 70816 includes exclusive minifigures of Astro Kitty Unikitty, Space Wyldstyle, Robo Emmet, and Robo Pilot. The Space Wyldstyle minifigure and Astro Kitty minifigure are my favorite versions of Unikitty and Wyldstyle, and look totally cool in their blue space gear. Space Wyldstyle and Benny are the only two minifigures in this set to feature reversible heads (and also the only two characters it makes sense to have them).

I’m also a big fan of the Robo Emmet minifigure, as it’s one of the few looks for Emmet that I actually wanted to see LEGO capture from the movie. The LEGO Robo Pilot minifigure I’m a bit lukewarm on–I have no affection for that character whatsoever (I don’t even remember it from the movie), but it was obviously necessary to fly the LEGO Robot Police Interceptor included with the set.

The LEGO Robo Police Interceptor ship is actually a very cute and well-made little one-man spaceship in its own right. The decals on the Robo Police Interceptor LEGO spaceship look terrific, and the sleek black and translucent red color scheme is very eye-grabbing. But let’s face it–this poor Robo Interceptor spaceship is completely and utterly outmatched against Benny’s Spaceship Spaceship SPACESHIP! It seems almost mean to pit the two against each other, doesn’t it?

The Wrong:

The one and only thing I can ding Benny’s Spaceship Spaceship SPACESHIP! LEGO 70816 set for in the cost-per-brick. My LEGO sweet spot is 10 cents per brick, and at 940 pieces for $99.99, this goes over that cost with an average of 10.6 cents per brick. It’s a minor infraction, but fair is fair and I definitely feel like I need to mention that the cost is slightly higher than I’d usually like.

In this particular case I’d have bought the set even if it cost double what it does, but I’m (obviously) a crazy person when it comes to Benny’s Spaceship from The LEGO Movie. Your space mileage may vary.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

The LEGO Movie Benny’s Spaceship Spaceship, SPACESHIP! 70816 set is now available for order online, and was officially released on June 1st 2014. This is going to permanently be a very popular set, so I urge anyone with any degree of interest in the set to get Benny’s Spaceship before the set is sold out and discontinued. This particular set is going to become astronomically expensive on the aftermarket once it’s no longer available in stores–don’t wait and have to pay a fortune for this one!

Overall: Is 70186 LEGO Benny’s SPACESHIP! a groundbreaking set that revolutionizes LEGO building? Absolutely not. But it is an incredibly faithful and authentic representation of what’s likely to become the most beloved LEGO vehicle in history because of its prominent role in The LEGO Movie. All five minifigures that come with the set are fantastic–and four of them are exclusive. Benny’s Spaceship itself is loaded with features, and all of them are fun.

If you are a fan of The LEGO Movie (and if you’re not, why are you reading this blog?), then you need LEGO Benny’s Spaceship Spaceship SPACESHIP! The slightly more-than-ten-cents-per-piece cost of the set almost keeps me from granting it an ‘A+’, but it comes with my absolute highest recommendation nonetheless.

GRADE: A+