Come and play everything’s a-okay
Friendly neighbours, yes that’s where we meet  
Can you tell me how to get, how to get to sesame street…

Sesame Street Theme Song

Millions of children around the world since the 70s woke up to those words. I remember sitting in front of the TV ready to learn their numbers, alphabet, and so much more from the myriad of monsters, creatures, that live on that wonderful street.

This month, LEGO says that they are going to release the LEGO Ideas 123 Sesame Street set. Which contains a section of that happy little street and a few of its most colourful residences.

Although they announced that the set will be launched in November, as of the writing of this, there are no official pricing or availability in Malaysia.

From the photos of the set that has been released, the estimated RM540 toy highly detailed, filled with stories, and easter eggs for fans to find. However, at the same time, it does not look impressive.

Let’ start with the minifigs. There are six in all: Cookie Monster, Elmo, Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, and Oscar the Grouch. Two of them looks great, one of them looks okay, and the other three are disappointing to me.

Bert and Ernie, are the best ones. They both have nicely sculpted heads, and their trademark sweater prints (front and back). Bert is given short legs, but the ones that can bend, while Ernie is given the shorter legs that is static.

These characters look like how I would expect them to look like in LEGO form.  They are detailed, their faces are expressive, and they are great.

Then you get what I feel is the okay minifig: Big Bird. The sculpted feathers and the painted legs are a nice touch. Although I feel that the inside of Big Bird’s mouth could use some colour. However, what prevented me from calling this minifig great is its size. The name is Big Bird, not adult minifig bird.

Big Bird is that tallest of the bunch (not by much) mainly because of its adult minifig legs and the head/body piece. To me, it lacks the size and the roundedness, of Big Big. The Minifig looks more like a baby version of the gentle giant.

The worst of the bunch are the three monsters: Cookie Monster Elmo, and Oscar. The awful paint job on these made me notice other quality control issues on the other figures as well. And this is on their promotional product photos.

Cookie and Elmo are just basic mono-coloured minifigs with sculped heads. There’s no body sculpt, not even fur prints. These look lazy. The printed round piece for Oscar’s head is beyond lazy. He doesn’t even get a body.

The inclusion of a cookie, a goldfish in a bowl, Big Bird’s teddy (which he can’t hold), rubber ducky, and Slimy (made from a heart piece), is cute. Especially Slimey. But, I still feel disappointed with the minifigs.

As for the rest of the build, It looks amazing in photos. There are a lot of details everywhere, inside and outside the building.

However, for a set that is more than RM500, I expect a set more akin to the Creative Expert level of depth and value. Give me a street, not just the sidewalk, give me more figures, and fix the three monsters. I’m can see collectors buying this set and improving on it using their own Creative Expert sets.

Update: One of the major Lego retailers listed the set at RM599.90

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