Toy: LEGO Creator: Log Cabin 5766

Though commonly thought of as a child's toy, there's a rather large community out there of adults who enjoy LEGO, and I consider myself one of them. I find the building of the pieces to relaxing because as you focus in on the model you tune out everything else.

Genre: Building Toy

Official Description:
Ages: 7-12
Pieces: 355
Price: $29.99

Escape to the LEGO® countryside in this 3-in-1 Log Cabin!

Packed with great details, including an open fire with rotisserie, wooden logs, tree and opening doors and windows, this log cabin is an ideal wilderness getaway. Minifigure included and ready for backwoods adventure, with backpack, paddle and canoe. Rebuild into a country retreat or a river hut.

• Includes 1 minifigure with backpack

• Features open fire with chicken on rotisserie, wooden logs, tree, opening doors and windows, canoe with paddle, and horn ornament

• Unique dark red roof

• Remove the roof and hinging wall section to play inside!

• The first LEGO® Creator set to include a minifigure!

• 3 models in 1: Rebuilds into a country retreat and a river hut

• River Hut features a brook, bridge, outdoor stove and furniture

• Country Retreat features a garden, street lamp and porch light

Cabin measures over 5” (12cm) wide and 5” (12cm) tall.

The Review
The Creator series serves as a nice bridge between some of the simpler sets and the way more complex LEGO Modular Building Series, their line for adult fans. Tto give you a sense of comparison for scale of the projects, the ones in that series will set you back $150-$200, have 2000+ pieces and is 10.5" x 10" and can probably set you back about 8-10 hours of build time.

The building techniques are basic and would help give a budding designer some solid fundamentals for designing their own buildings.The roof is solidly attached, but with a bit of pressure in the right place will handily lift off. Tis design also features a back you can open so you can play with the inside. I find that this design makes the structure a little weak when building, if you're not careful you can accidentally take down the entire wall. The stability issue is at least a bit resolved with the roof, but even then with only 2-3 inches of space inside before you hit the roof only the smallest hands will actually be able to really play inside the structure. Again, like with the buildings in this series, the building works better as a display piece than a play piece.

Your build time will depend on experience. I probably spend 2, 2.5 hours total on this kit: most of my time was spent in the prep (sorting the pieces, then I sort the individual page steps into their own cups) the build went quick as I've done it numerous times. Figure another hour and a half for adults with little-to-no experience: so long as you've done your sorting, the build is relative quick, but you will spend time tracking down little parts if you aren't careful in your sorting (dixie cups are awesome) and there may be a few spots where you're confused by the directions. The age range is listed as 7-12, the 7 year old is probably better served doing this with an adult to help them through it especially as there are some small parts and they may get distracted - or if nothing else, the parent should be around so they loose any of the pieces in the middle of it.

Of all the Creator building series, this one has some interesting colors going for it, and I like the boat of the main design (though I gripe because there isn't a good place to store the paddle, it'll be easily lost for those who move hteir models around often), it is (as the box boasts) also the first in the series to include a mini-figure, a nice touch.

I'd say that if you're a completionist, collector or new to the Creator series, it's definitely worth a grab. If you own a few of these, it's not a must have because it rather basic. I picked it up for 50% off during a recent Buy One Get One 1/2 off sale at Toys 'R Us and for me that was the right price.

<b>My grade</b> B-