| When your toddler has graduated from the Duplo stage and is ready to take the next step in his, or her, Lego journey, the Lego Ultimate Building Set is the ideal graduation gift. With 405 pieces stored in a durable plastic box with a see-through top, this set is the perfect place to let children continue to explore their imagination and engineering skills. The Lego Ultimate Building Set contains many small pieces and is designed for kids ages four and older. The Ideal Lego Starter Kit The Lego Ultimate Building Set includes everything a child needs to take the first steps to becoming an expert Lego builder. It includes one mini figurine, a building plate, and a wide mix of standard bricks in various colors as well as house and wheel elements. Following the included instructions and using pieces in the starter kit, kids can build a house, helicopter, dog, and car. The only flaw is that the instructions may be challenging for younger children, and require adult assistance. As is the case with virtually every Lego set, your child will be limited only by his, or her, imagination and perseverance. Although the kit is designed for younger children graduating from Lego Duplos, you can be confident that your child will never actually grow out of the Ultimate Building Set. All of the pieces can be incorporated into future Lego collections. What's in the Box 405 standard Lego pieces with house and wheel element, mini figurine, durable plastic storage case, and instructions. 
With 405 pieces, this Legos starter kit allows your child to build a variety of different things. |
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Toy dollars well spent
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| Review Date: March 25, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Rocco, Philadelphia |
No they are not cheap. No the box isn't full to even half capacity. But these toys are still around for a reason: they rock. More specifically, they are indestructible, offer immense replay value, encourage creative quiet and thoughtful play, promote fine motor skill development, and they are just plain fun.
Think about the countless cheap $3.99 and $4.99 soft plastic throw away toys you've bought over the years: invariably imported and with unknown lead content, cost pennies to make, including the polly pockets, fairies, mermaids, bratz, little ponies, strawberry shortcakes, littlest petz, etc. All of those toys are very restrictive in the type of play they permit, fall apart, and lose your child's interest after a few days.. until you buy another worthless set for their next "fix."
In the case of legos i would argue that if you just refrain from buying those cheap blister packed toys for a few months you will have saved more than enough to get this or another "flexible" set of legos. I don't care for the elaborate lego sets that have you follow intricate instructions to build a pirate ship, or harry potters house, or a star wars backdrop,etc. Those are just as restrictive and inflexible in their play.
So get this set or something similar as soon as you are sure your kid won't choke on a brick. It is something they will play with now and in the future. You'll beat inflation, you'll have it for future kids you might have, or those who might visit, and it will always have excellent resale value on e_bay.
As for the merits and value of this particular set, i think it is fairly reasonable relative to prices for used, bulk collections you might get on an auction website, or compared to the more expensive, larger, thematic sets - such as the "townhouse", lunar lander, or whatever. It has 4 wheels, 2 axles, 1 figure (a mechanic dude), a set of mini tools for the figure, 1 door, 2 windows, some clear pieces for windshields or windows, a propellor/windmill piece, a radiator grille, a cute mini steering wheel, and assorted bricks including some long ones. The base unfortunately isn't even standard height, but sort of a cheap 1/5 or 1/4 height. So that's a little lame. So it isn't perfect but i can't find a better variety pack for the price. Although the Lego 4+ Basic Bulk Set might be a good second set to consider.
We got this set to augment the pink little girls set with the jump rope on the box. Together they are a reasonable set but its still a small collection. I would contend that similar to the defense department maintaining an army that can fight a war in 2 theatres at once, you should have enough legos to build 2 houses at once. That is unless you have more than 2 kids... |
Fabulous set, need a few of them!
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| Review Date: April 18, 2008 |
| Reviewer: carolyn, Canal Winchester, OH |
| This is such a fabulous starter set for Legos. It has all the right "boy" parts in it including airplane propellers, race car steering wheels, etc. This set is very well loved in this house and has built everything from race tracks to helicopters. Great, great fun and provides HOURS of entertainment. If you are getting these for a true Lego afficionado, be sure to pick up a couple of them. It has quite a few pieces but to truly build a bunch of stuff, you'll need more. Wait for a sale, however, Easter and Christmas usually provides a great sale at the giant toystore with an r in the name. Watch Amazon too - they knock ten bucks off the price every now and then! Highly, highly recommend! |
We love it
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| Review Date: February 11, 2008 |
| Reviewer: C. Kaufman, Springdale, AR |
| We love this kit. My 4 year old plays with it for hours and makes all sorts of interesting vehicles and machines. We honestly never have noticed a lack of base plates as some reviewers noted. The other complaint was the lack of fullness for the box. I admit we felt the same for about 5 minutes until we realized we finally had a great place to store all the other small sets of lego we had accumulated. I think Lego was smart to allow extra space. Anyway, people should lighten up and let the kids just play. I know we all loved lego growing up, but are the kids disappointed, or just the parents? |
Awesome basic set
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| Review Date: January 14, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Hawaii Girl, Europe |
| I was surprised that so many things can be built with these legos. I didn't expect it to be so versatile. I loved legos as a kid, and this is the first set I've bought for my children, ages 7, 4, and 1. I like that the container is BIG and sturdy, so clean up is easy and we'll be able to add to the collection. |
Great Set for Diverse Building
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| Review Date: September 19, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Zen the Pirate, |
We bought this set for my 4 year old son for his birthday and it was/is an immediate hit with him and his 7 year old sister. As other reviewers have mentioned, it is more of a starter set than an ultimate set, but if you read the product review you will see that at 400 pieces it is not the largest (or most expensive) set. The tub is terrific for storage and is big enough to hold constructed pieces between building sessions.
We'll be adding more sets with specialized pieces, building plates, etc. But this kit does have lots of options for building houses, cars, helicopters, airplanes animals etc. Given that and compared to some of the other sets, this is actually a pretty good bargain for $25. |
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