Looking for an alternative to Lego JMBricklayer introduces you to its latest offering the mechanical parrot from the Civilisation Future Times Collection currently available for $24.99
First Impressions
The JMBricklayer mechanical parrot comprises of just under 700 pieces and just like other builds from this brand the pieces are divided into bags.
My first negative was that all the bags were not numbered like other builds from this brand, meaning there was no easy way to differentiate which bags were needed, so I just opened them all at once.
Other than the issue mentioned above, the booklet was clear and easy to follow. The added bricks are outlined in red which generally makes it easy to see which pieces you’re adding.
Design
This model is similar to the mechanical dinosaur we reviewed recently in that one half is designed to look like a real creature, and the other is made to look mechanical. I quite like this juxtaposition between the two halves. It makes both the build more diverse, and the final appearance more striking.
The parrot itself sits on a perch, so it’s easy to place this model on a shelf. The perch is primarily brown, with two different shades used.
The “real” side of the parrot has a mixture of yellows, blues and greens – with two different shades of blue and yellow used which provides a nice contrast. The mechanical side has purples, oranges and blues in addition to the usual metallic/silver elements littered throughout. Various mechanical features such as gears and piping can be seen on this side of the parrot. There are see-through blue pieces on the mechanical wings, which I enjoyed as you can see the parrot through these pieces. The parrot’s feet also follow this real/mechanical divide.
The mechanical side also has a lighting element and a piece of tubing which lights up green when it is switched on (by turning the grey gear). There is a photo of this at the end of the review.
Build
This build contains numerous bags – all labelled “1” – and a set of bags labelled “0” which contains spare parts. The spare parts were useful as I broke one of the original claws – whoops. Be careful with those parts!
As mentioned before, the instructions are pretty clear. There’s a section showing all the pieces you need for each step, which helps in finding all the pieces you need before construction. The parrot’s body was the first section to be constructed, not that I knew this initially. I had no idea which bit of the bird I had started with, but it soon became clear.
Care should be taken when installing the following piece: don’t push the ball joint in too far, or you’ll have wing-related issues down the line.
Next up were the feet and tail feathers – be sure to take care with the claws as I broke one. The parrot can, sort of, stand up on its feet which was helpful for taking the photos!
The head was attached next, followed by the wings, which completed the parrot. As I mentioned before, the diversity in the mechanical builds is nice – and I feel there are not many, if any, repetitive sections, which can sometimes happen in these builds.
The final step was building the perch, which gave the final model.
Verdict
Except for the poor numbering of the bags, I very much enjoyed this build. The mechanical series of JMBricklayer products are great fun to build and to look at once built. I think I’ll have the mechanical side on display as it just looks more interesting than the “real” side – plus the lighting effect is pretty cool.
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