Review: Lego 31009 Creator Small Cottage

I'm gonna pick up the pieces and build a Lego house
If things go wrong we can knock it down

- "Lego House", Ed Sheeran


When I was a kid my parents bought me a lot of Lego City houses.  Those sets taught me a lot of the building techniques needed to make great Lego houses.

This Creator set caught my eye with its sliding door and nice mix of colors.  I knew I had to get one.

The great thing about Creator sets they already have 3 different models and instructions for them in the box.

Opening the Box

The box shows the Creator line branding as well as the 3 main models that can be built from the kit.

Just like any big creator box it contains 3 separated instructions booklets for all 3 main models.

Ah a nice bunch of packs... since this is a Creator set the bags are not numbered

Agh I can't find my hair in this mess!?!?!

Now let's get to building this creator set.


The first model:  Small Cottage


It has been a long time since I built a Lego house straight from a boxed set.  This brought back a lot of memories form my childhood when mom and dad bought me a lot of City sets.  Those sets taught me a lot about building structurally sound Lego houses.  And 31009 is no different as it uses a lot of proven building techniques and a few modern ones.

I have my hair piece, skate board and hotdog!  Time to get to building!

Notice the swing out wall that allows you to arrange stuff inside the house

Lego houses in the past used to have one wall missing so that you play with the interiors after the house is built.   A lot of the modern ones use swing out walls as a means to have a complete structure as well as a way to still play with the house interiors.   Seen above is one of the ways by which this is accomplished.

Ahh that awesome sliding door!  It's what made me buy this model

The sliding door above was what actually convinced me to buy this kit.  I was working on some sliding doors for a spaceport moc and I stumbled on 31009.  It's not close to a space station sliding door but I still wanted it haha.

Preparing the section where the roof/second floor will connect

Another building technique here is adding those tiles with studs at either ends as connection points for the roof structure.  The lesser amount of studs let the roof be easily disconnected from the house and once again let you see the house interiors.  The minimal stud count allows for a good grip for the roof so it sits well on the house.

And just like that the first model is done!  Again being a creator set this is just set 1 of 3 that you can build with instructions from the box.

Me and my girlfriend Apple's sigfigs

 It's a nice small cottage.  And that awesome sliding door!

And here we have the completed house with the small pond and lawn.   Also showing up in the picture is nephew BJ's champion racer from the Lego City line.

The Second Model: A small bungalow

Out of the 3 models this is the one I like the least.  This is also the model that felt more like a standard Lego house build.  Take note of the classic technique of splitting the house in half to allow building a house with 4 walls and still be able to play with the interiors.

The technique shown from behind.

Here's a more complete structure of the house's ground floor.  I love the window details and the small fireplace.

The structure form the outside.

Unfortunately I was not able to get a picture of the completed house split in half. The roof section is also created so that you can open the house in the middle.


It is a nice little house when get down to it.    I just prefer the sliding doors cottage and the windmill to this build.

Nice details on the exterior.

Small Cottage 2

Love the hotdog as lamp neck.

Third Model: The Windmills in our mind

After the Small cottage the windmill is my second favorite build from this kit.

I like the fact that the Windmill is on a raised platform.

Well some of these bricks (particularly the glass panels) won't be used

Nature shot!

The windmill opens up to show the distillery inside.

Milk?  Beer?  Your guess is as good as mine.

Some additional shots:

And with the extra bricks a waiting shed popped up. :)

Let's  PPPPAAAAARRRTTTYYYY!

Always remember this technique to make your internals accesible

Woohoo pool party!

From the extra bricks I made a small white shelf

As usual a Creator set never fails to satisfy your building urges.  This was an extremely satisfying set to build especially for people who loves to build Lego houses.  It also provides new builders with a lot of great techniques they can learn from.

If you ever get the chance to acquire 31009 I suggest you go get it.  The sliding doors are awesome!

Thank you for going through one of my longer reviews in recent memory.

Until next time Leg Godt!

Review: Lego Creator 3-in-1 Set # 31013

It feels like eternity since I last posted here.  A lot of personal stuff happened.  Well I'm back.

I'll jump in quickly and review this fine small creator box that my awesome girlfriend gave me:

As with any set under the Creator line of Lego this comes with instructions for 3 different models.  I've always been fond of Creator sets that include flying vehicles and this one had two (technically three since hovercrafts also fly in their own manner).

I was going to get it anyway but my awesome gf decided to get it for me!  Thanks hon!

As seen from the picture it's 399 pesos at Hobbes & Landes.  Because I have a Team Hobbes card and we paid in cash we got an 8% discount.


Let's get straight into the action and build this thing:

Inside were two polybags of parts and the requisite instructions.

First up is my favorite build out of the 3 in the instructions the Helicopter.


The helicopter looks like one of those sturdy transport choppers that can do heavy lifitng.

The only thing missing is the landing wheels for this model.  But aside from that it's a beautiful rendition of a helicopter.



Next up is the Plane

Similar to the helicopter the plane is missing the landing gears as the kit generally does not have wheels included.

But the plane is a nice prop driven model.  The strange thing for me is the asymmetrical lights.  One side is green and another is red.  The continuous use of the cup parts as engine parts is a nice touch.

My least favorite model was built last: the Hovercraft

I have the bigger Lego Creator set 31003 which also features coincidentally a helicopter, plane and hovercraft.  And I loved the execution of the hovercraft there.  It has to be said though that 31003 was a much bigger box with much more parts than 31013.

The hovercraft here felt bland and seems to lack details in my own humble opinion.

So at the end of it all I decided to see if I can come up with a robot from all the parts of this particular box.

Here's what I came up with:

This Creator set did not disappoint.  It provided an ample array of bricks that enable a builder to come up with various models.

Thanks hon for giving me this new Lego set.

Everything is awesome!




footnote: I didn't want to start the article with this note.  But this is the first article I've written since my mom died on March 19.  Her gift of Lego when I was 3 years old started my  love affair with the world famous brick toy.  May you rest in peace mom and thanks for introducing me to Lego.