Is the Sonic the Hedgehog Lego Expansion Set Worth the Hype? An In-Depth Review and Comparison – 21331

Is this fan made LEGO Sonic the Hedgehog Green Hill Zone alternative/expansion MoC any good?! In this video we are going to look at an alternative build to the official release of Sonic the Hedgehog LEGO Ideas set 21331. Is this any good as an expansion module to add to the official set? We will look at the individual modules, compare Dr Robotniks/Eggman’s and a couple of suggested layouts. We will also highlight a few errors we found in the instructions showing you how to build everything.

PDF Instructions for this expansion are available for free from rebrickable.com and are by the original fan designer of the set – Viv Grannell, also known as toastergrl online. This is a smart move by the fan designer as it encourages you to buy another set, or 2, like what I’ve done here. https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-99580/toastergrl/21331-modules-badniks-expansion-pack/#details

If you want to find out more details about my custom Sonic the Hedgehog level MoC, check out our video card above or details on my website mattelder.com/sonic for Free instructions.

Transcript from the show

G’day everyone! Matt Elder family bricks here and today we’re going to look at this alternative build to the official release of Sonic the Hedgehog Lego ideas set 21331. Is this any good as an expansion module to the official set? We’ll look at the individual models, compare the Dr Robotnik/Eggman’s and a couple of suggested layouts. We also highlight a few errors we found in the instructions showing you how to build everything.

PDF instructions for this expansion are available for free from rebrickable.com and are by the original fan designer of this set, Viv Grenell, also known as Toaster Girl online. This is a smart move by the fan designer as it encourages you to buy another set or two like what we’ve done here.

This video is brought to you by Macatsim Holiday Homes in Margate and Broadstairs. Great for a week’s holiday or a weekend Escape being just over an hour east of London UK. Treat yourself to amazing sunsets, a Lego wall or great food. Visit www.macatsim.com and mention this YouTube video and we’ll look after you.

So you we have the official set with the Robotnik on one side and then this is the rebuild extension set so you can see this is using all the pieces and this wall does quite well with what it’s got. It does feel that there’s less volume and bulk of stuff there. So we’ll look at some of the individual components starting off with the larger one which is going to be this sort of section here with two lamps, a palm tree there with a TV on the top and a little hint of spring there some little recessed parts there and then the spinning around to the back very similar sort of thing. A little unfortunate that that blue sticks out but when you put some plates along it you won’t see it.

A couple of smaller little platforms just to be able to bulk things out and you’ve got there with the little plant. Same sort of build as the original set and then split levels here with another TV and then over here you’ve got this corner piece. Then you have some of these guns here used to the spikes just done quite well here. We have one of the enemies which is really cool the way that they’ve utilized these see-through parts for wings using the same includes speakers for the face. Another enemy made up and looks pretty cool nice little Sharpie spiky and a Dr Robotnik or Eggman depending upon your market.

And parts of this are the same as the one in the set but then other parts are different. It does feel a little bit on the fragile side and certainly before you put the hands on it sort of doesn’t stand properly and has a tendency to fall backwards but good to see it trying. And the weapon is only just in there, it’s very easy to have that pop out.

So now there’s just different ways that you configure these and put them together. So now we’re going to combine the sets and you start off by taking the black pieces off the side of the official set, broken them up into the modules and now starting to reconfigure them all together here and they slide together pretty easily with the use of Technic pins and axles.

“So here is the module layout. One option is a mix and match of the extension set plus the actual original base Sonic set. You can sort of see that the first two bits are an extension of some of the original and come around using this corner piece to come back down into sort of more the original set with the loop there and a Robotnik. It gives a nice bit of variation and being in a corner module like that, you then have some flexibility if you don’t have long straight runs or you need to get it to wrap around or even if you want to extend it even further.

I can certainly appreciate wrapping around because this is my other custom Moc one which is much bigger and trying to find a space to have all the different parts you need, sometimes you just have to have a bit of flexibility. If you want to find out more details about my custom Sonic the Hedgehog level Moc, check out our video card above or details on my website matilda.com/Sonic for free instructions.

Now we’re going to take this apart and reconfigure it so it’s all in one flat straight line. So, you put the modules in with the pins again and then add the black side tiles in that we’ve got from before on both sides. This is module layout suggestion number two and it’s obviously just all in a straight line. Again, it’s mixing in the original set with also the alternate build that they got here and it gives just a nice little panoramic visual going across the whole length. So as you move along, you can see all the various little elements and it just expands it and gives it that more full sort of feeling.

Obviously, when you just got the base set to deal with, there’s only so much you can do at a certain price point but certainly, you know, adding in some more, you get a nice bit of variation within it. The nice thing is that the original fan designer has gone through and you can sort of see over on this side is the fan design palm tree and over here is the actual official one. So they’re trying to keep the language of it the same so it all fits together and it’s not too jarring and I think they’ve done a really good job at that.

If you look closely at some of the pieces, you’ll notice that here being the set it’s got two high but some of the places over here it’s three but that’s just because they’ve had to work within the piece that have been available in the set. So if you’re looking for those very particular details, you’ll be able to pick them up as being slightly different and it’s interesting to see this take on Eggman.

Because obviously, this is the main set and then this is the brick build. They’ve never redone the head certainly there’s a bit of criticism around the way that that was done. So at least you got another alternative. So at the end of the day, would I recommend going out and getting a second set to be able to do this?”

I think it’s gonna be if you’re a really hardcore sort of fan or you like the additional expansion to really give it that Fuller sort of volume and build out you will have a lot of extra pieces left over and it might just be waiting until some more extension sets come out later on in 2023 which are rumored but certainly if you’re able to pick this up at a discount which they do do occasionally it might be worthwhile doing once you finish the main build.

This gives you an idea as to the number of pieces that are left. It feels like there’s about half. Some of those black ones will get used when you put it all together. Only downside with trying to build this set is you do have so many pieces so it’s probably worthwhile trying to null it out if you want to do it quickly. It’s been a while since I built the original set and now I remember I’ve forgotten just how tedious it can be putting together some of these one by one plates.

So you get the two High plates throughout the whole thing like you know 10 of these eight of those one step one slide issue at step 48 there’s meant to be three of these pieces but in the set I’ve only come across two so far. I’m going to pull the next one out of my own collection but enough to see I’ve started to sort through some of the colors to try to figure out if I am just have it buried under something or if it’s actually missing. And at step 93 we seem to be short of one of these one by two reddish brown tiles so I have to go into the Personal Collection and grab one.

Thanks very much for watching and if you leave the word end in the comments we’ll know you’ve watched this far. If you’ve enjoyed this video hit that thumbs up button and consider subscribing to the channel. A share also never goes astray. If you’d like to check out our fan Moc versus the official set, click the video here. If you’d like to see a review of the chemical plant zone expansion Moc, check this video. Alternatively, you might like these videos with more details on our fan Moc and how to build it. That’s it from us here at familybricks. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you in the next video.

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