With playsets, new episodes, and themed attractions at LEGOLAND Malaysia, the LEGO Group has played their LEGO DREAMZzz opening hand. But what’s laid out doesn’t look worthy of a theme labelled as the most researched theme the company has ever produced.

Now on toy shelves, the 10 initial LEGO DREAMZzz playsets don’t look as impressive as they did on paper. Mrs Castillo’s Turtle Van (71456) is smaller than expected, Mateo and Z-Blob the Robot (71454) might as well be a Ben-10 theme set, and Z-Blob, the mascot that represents boundless imagination is lacking (just like its name) in everything that it symbolises in toy form.

The show is a disappointment. Knowing that LEGO has had better makes it even more so.

Then LEGO DREAMZzz landed in LEGOLAND Malaysia with three attractions until 24 September.

First, the 4D Movie ‘Z-Blob Rescue Rush’ is based on the TV show, which is not a great start. It’s just a new movie in a theme park theatre with shaking seats.

Second, the quest for five escaped dream creatures in MINILAND turns out to be a hunt for plaques with a letter on it to spell an obvious name. It is not an activity where visitors have to find cleverly hidden creatures within the MINILAND. The reward is generic and unpersonalised card.

Third, the building a dream creature and dreamworld activity is just buckets of pieces to build with and a painted closet to put the creations in. It’s no better than going to PLANET LEGOLAND in the park.

There are no mascots, no themed rooms, and no themed rides.

Perhaps I put too much weight on the LEGO Group’s statement that LEGO DREAMZzz was its most researched theme. It claimed to have worked with more than 30,000 kids and shoppers to shape LEGO DREAMZzz, but it didn’t name any child experts. It said it took more than three years to develop the theme, but it was also in the middle of the pandemic.

In other words, LEGO didn’t do anything different in developing LEGO DREAMZzz. It just took a long time because the world stopped.

Still, the LEGO DREAMZzz show is easier to find and more original than LEGO Monkie Kid, the Nightmare Shark Ship (71469) is still impressive, and LEGOLAND has a massive model of BUNCHU made of LEGO — ignore the dill… pickle.

I was wrong about LEGO Monkie Kid’s staying power, and perhaps I’ll be wrong about LEGO DREAMZzz, too. But right now, I don’t think it’ll survive for more than two years. I appreciate that it is not culture-based — at least not an overused one —, and it’s not pandering to certain people, but LEGO could have done something different.