It's been over a year since my last The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly article, but when I recieved my copy of set 40411-1 I knew immediately that it was great subject fodder for it's comeback. Let's find out which of the 12 models are Good, Bad, or Ugly.

Background

Released as a gift with purchase, set 40411-1 came when you spent over $85 between July 1st to 26th. The models capture that summer feeling wonderfully and with a relatively high part count for a 'freebie' this set looked promising. After building them all some are outstanding, some work good enough, and some are just bad. Let's break it down.

The set actually gave us a part in a new color and a rare part. The new color is 15429 Animal Body Part, Cat Tail in Dark Pink. The part was introduced in 2014 as Unikitty's tail. The rare part is 73983 Hinge Plate 1 x 4 Swivel Top / Base in Bright Light Yellow, LEGO must've had some leftover from the Fiat 500 set.

The rest of the parts are a fantastic collection of varied categories and colors. This is like a Classic set turbo charged, with bars, SNOT brick and plates, slopes, plant parts, and more. It's a really great parts pack.

You cannot build all 12 models at the same time, similar to the Christmas Build Up from 2017, you have to take them apart to builf the next. There are some you can have built simultaneously but I wasn't fussed enough to figure out all the possibilities. I have left my favorite two built (which may find their way into Rebricksberg) and that's it. I'll reveal my favourites now...

The Good

Firstly, the models that would be good enough to be their own little polybags. I found these to either be great finished models, or have well developed techniques which made for an interesting build.

First up, if you've read any of my reviews so far you'd know I'm a sucker for two things, a great looking Modular building, and large food made from LEGO. The slice of Watermelon is awesome. Simple to build but looks great with all the connecting parts hidden well.

Next is another large piece of food, even better than the watermelon, the Ice Cream looks good enough to actually eat. Some nifty part usage achieves the bitten look.

Next up is my favourite of the whole set. The Duck Boat looks great but I did make a couple of changes using other parts in the set. Firstly, they used 2x Tan 3023 Plates when the Yellow ones in the set were available. I wanted it all to match. Also I used the 1x1 Round Tiles with Eye prints instead of the black ones used in the model. It looks so sinister with those oh-so-black eyes.

Maybe a surprising choice for good, The Sandcastle has issues but when you close it up it suddenly looks very different. I absolutely don't like how is looks open and I wonder why none of the promotional images show it closed. The Bright Light Yellow hinge plates do look odd though. This is the other model I've left built.

The last of the good has the best techniques of the whole set, including a interesting use for part 2449 Inverted Slope. The Windsurfer is just fantastic. It's these kind of models that teach the next generation of great MOC designers.

The Bad

I'm going ot open The Bad with some harsh judgement on what is admittedly an ok model. The Pineapple represents the fruit well, however, I really hate how the leaves are clipped to the bar with no effort made to hide it. I also hate canyons created at the corners by these kind of SNOT builds. LEGO solved this with it's Christmas Trees, looks like they need that memo to get round the office.

The next entry proves that even large brick built food doesn't actually translate to "I LOVE IT!". The Cherries are such a filler build to get to that magical 12. After what was literally seconds of build time we get a rather uninteresting model with a Bright Light Yellow hinge plate at the top. I guess they all can't be winners.

Looking at these parts you'd think someone could've come up with a really great Boat model, unfortunately we got this one. It's mismatched colors look terrible and the clutch power on the sails will frustrate even the most patient of us. I do like the use of the 1x1 plate with tooth for the bow though.

The Last bad is The Fish. LEGO have tons of great small fish builds, where, unlike with the Boat, mismatched colors can often add to the tropical nature of some fish breeds. This fish is in the Bad not because of the colors but because it just doesn't look right, mainly the front. I do like the tail, but the side fins suffer from more really annoying clutch issues too.

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The Ugly

I've said before, Ugly is my favorite category. A lot of the time you can't help but smile at these weird little creations.

My daughter went crazy for Ugly's first entry. The Flamingo actually has some interesing techniques and from the right angle looks quite nice, unfortunately it's not easy finding that right angle. I can't quite place what makes it Ugly, the odd neck maybe, or the awesome quiff hair, either way this model whole-heartedly sums up the Ugly but I love it ethos.

Another entry where if you squint and rotate it just right it looks flawless. The Seahorse is one of the bigger models and you can tell, with most of the parts on show you simultaneously say "Aww it's cute", and "Ahh, get it away from me".

And finally, The Parrot. At first it looks quite nice, but there's two issues that make this ugly. The beak is too flat which doesn't look too bad from the right angle but awful from others. The other thing is the leaves on the back. I get what they were trying to do but it just looks odd. In all fairness to the parrot it may not deserve to be in the Ugly category, but it's not bad enough to be bad, and definately not good enough to be good.

The MOCs

Before I summarise the set I wanted to share some of the MOC's on Rebrickable that use the parts in set 40411-1. We currently have 4 Alt builds so I'll list them all. I'm surprised how few we have, these kind of sets usually trigger a bunch of submissions. Consider yourselves challenged!

As a reminder, these MOC's may be good, bad, or ugly, I just won't be the one saying so. 

First up Creative Car Ferry by Nequmodiva takes on the challenge of building a better boat (well ferry at least). At 173 parts they use a good number of the parts in the set.

Next are two from designer Bert_Bricks (their only 2 MOCs so far). Here they massively improve upon both the fish and parrot model by bringing us Colorful Fish and Exotic Bird. The fish utilises more parts than the official model, and really deliver a great tropical fish. The bird model hugely upgrades the leaf feathers for some dramatic plumage using the watermelons angled plates.

Lastly, Pioneer4x4 brings us Fig, whatever that is exactly. This weird little dude has an awesome hat and is chewing grass? of has a double green tongue? I don't know but I love it.

Conclusion

I really loved this set. More than half of the models were either fun builds or great looking models. But the best thing is what this set allows you to do. You can't help but feel triggered into creating something of your own when handling the tray of parts. Unfortunately the promotion has now ended but if you find this little set cheap somewhere (under $25 is what I'd recommend) definately pick up a copy.

Build On,
Jared

I am a LEGO fan who loves nothing better than to find a big, cheap, bin of LEGO and see what I get. As a Brit living in California so my spelling frequently differs betwen English and American English (sorry about that!). Sorting is my expert skill, creating MOC's is not. So I'm always grateful to this community who create things for me to build.

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