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Set Review: 5560 Large Pink Box
 Saturday, February 27th, 2010 at 4:34pm by Andrew M, BZPower ReporterOh yes. The future is here, denizens of BZPower. Bionicle is over; nevermore shall those plastic inhabitants of a golem's gut grace our store shelves. The time has come for us to pick up the pieces and move on - but since this is Lego, that's quite easy: in fact, the pieces can be reformed into something new. Perhaps something...better. In that vein, now is the winter of our discontent made spring by this sun of expanding our horizons. There are more things in Lego and plastic, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. So to that end, today I shall review a Lego product unlike anything we have seen on BZPower before: The #5560 Large Pink Box. So let us stick our fingers in and begin the fun! And check it out, I got the action on video! Right-click and download the video rather than streaming it, please; playing with the big pink box makes the server pretty shaky.
PRESENTATION
No item on the Lego shelves at my local Wal-Mart stood out as prominently as this beacon of vibrancy. The hot-pink colour grabs the eye and reels the bystander in like no muted blue ever could. This...this is a standout package. And yet it stands out in its own utter simplicity. All it is, ultimately, is a plastic tub, with a translucent-plastic lid that snaps on top. But this elementary nature is beautifully utilitarian: it is meant to be wholly reusable. Not only does the packaging serve as a vessel to advertise, ensnare, and deliver; it also is a handy storage container in which the purchaser may keep his or her Lego bricks - including but not limited to the ones derived from this transaction. Beyond the hue of its pigmentation, the packaging features a lovely montage of possible things one can build with the bricks contained within. Among these: a pink (!) stable, a (not-pink) tree, and a pink (!) automobile. The idea book in which instructions for some of these can be found is advertised, and of course there is a prominent CHOKING HAZARD warning. Do not eat your pink Lego bricks, boys and girls, no matter how delicious they appear. Where the front is flashy, the back is handy: it presents a chart of every single element contained within the set and how many of each are therein. How convenient and clever! It's as if Linnaeus joined the Lego Box Deigning Team™ to pepper us with his taxonomic wisdom. Ah, inventory! Ultimately, it is all really very pretty. THE BRICKS - WHAT'S IN THE BOX?
After using scissors to snap the tether holding the box securely shut, and subsequently doing the same to for the displayed-baseplate (attached to a cardboard insert), four plastic pouches plummet out when you capsize the container. Roughly, two contain "large" elements, one "medium," and the last "small." Also present in the load of loot is and "idea booklet" and the aforementioned baseplate (the cardboard inset is, naturally, to be discarded - oh blimey that was some punnery). Sifting through the bricks reveals this tub to be a veritable goldmine - nay, make that platinum mine of parts. The primary contents are regular Lego system bricks in classic configurations such as 4x2, 2x2, 4x1, 2x1, 3x2, 1x1, and so on - the bricks Lego is known for, the bricks we have enjoyed for decades, the simple elements from which anything may be built. What's more impressive, however, is the colours present: I say with confidence that I doubt any other set has ever been released containing such a high density of incredibly rare colours. To begin with, there are four shades of pink (including trans-pink, or rose). That alone is shocking and impressive. But continuing from there are bricks in orange, lime green, bright green, light blue, and brown, alongside more traditional colours like red, white, and classic yellow. This blew my mind. These are the sorts of colours we have begged Lego to grant us - and here they are, nestled humbly within a simple pink tub. I cannot stress enough how incredible this is. Other fun elements include cups, windows, doors, a horse, a minifig, a hairbrush, and more. PLAYING EXPERIENCE
Surely you saw that giant cascade of Lego bricks in the photograph above, or animated in the video review? That alone should display the playing potential contained herein. As aforementioned, the bulk of this sets' content is the classic Lego fare, a toy designed specifically to be limited only by one's imagination. There are no specific instructions in the Large Pink Box - no limits on what can be built. The whole purpose is old-fashioned mind-expanding fun with Legos. You don't just build a model and let it be - you play again and again, for as long as you wish. It's what Lego is all about. And I must say, it's beautifully refreshing. Especially emerging from Bionicle, where the building aspect of the sets grew to be downplayed significantly, I had almost forgotten the simple joy of just playing with Legos. But this delivers in droves.
The idea booklet contains numerous pictures to stir the imagination and instructions for six simple 'starter' ideas. Among them are a stable, a car, houses, and more. Some - like the house-front I built in the video and the horse-pulled cart (not featured) - can be built concurrently, while others share elements. Pictured here is the stable from the idea book, which showcases the various kinds of pink included in this box. After building that, I tried my hand at a design of my own: a little pink hovercar.
Playing with the Large Pink Box was an utter joy. FINAL THOUGHTS
I have nothing negative to say about the Large Pink Box. The set comes with an unfathomable amount of rare colours that cannot be found in other Lego sets, especially not in the quantities present here. The Large Pink Box is undeniably the most exquisite parts resource released in recent memory - I would go so far as to call it a downright essential purchase for any MOCist. Grab it before it leaves store shelves! Parents looking for a gift for their children would be wise to select this instead of the smaller pink box. Yes, its price is higher, but its value matches: it comes with more interesting elements (including a minifigure - a minifig representing our adminsitrator, Tufi Piyufi, I have concluded - which the smaller set lacks). Girls are the intended target audience, naturally, and this appeals to stereotypes of femininity solidly. That is not to say that "All girls love pink" or "Girls only want to build domestic things," which could be inferred, but I do not think Lego is necessarily misogynist for making a set appealing to these. Just because the box shows a stable and a house doesn't mean your daughter cannot build a Giant Pink Killer Robot. Indeed, I recommend this set for boys as well, unless they are going through that childish "Pink is yucky! Girls have cooties!" phase. Honestly I have a hard time believing any Lego enthusiast would turn his or her nose at this amazing package. I am unabashed: I love the pink! My kitty is stepping on the keyboard now so I'm going to wrap this up. Talk back in the Talkback!
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