Month: February 2024

The Razor Crest: The Best Value in My Entire Vonado Haul

Vonado Review · Purchased February 11, 2024 · $197.99 CAD via Vonado

Razor Crest Mandalorian building block set
A Razor Crest compatible-brick build. Photo via USABLOCKS.

If someone asked me to justify the entire Vonado experiment with a single set, this is the one I would point to.

The Background

The Razor Crest, Din Djarin’s gunship from The Mandalorian, is one of the most consistently requested Star Wars vehicles in brick form, and LEGO’s own official versions have a well-earned reputation among fans. Vonado’s version, listed at roughly 1,383 pieces on their retail listing, is a clear compatible alternative aimed at the same audience, priced well under what an equivalent-scale officially licensed LEGO Star Wars ship typically runs.

I bought this as part of the same large February order as the previous entries in this series, and out of that entire haul, it is the one I would recommend to someone else without hesitation.

Living With It

The scale here is the right size to actually feel substantial once built (roughly desk-shelf sized, not a small trinket) while still being an achievable weekend build rather than the multi-day undertaking some of the larger sets in this series turned into. Hull detailing on the ship’s distinctive asymmetric silhouette came through clearly, and the set includes an opening cargo bay and cockpit area, giving it real play value beyond just sitting as a static display piece.

Piece quality across this build was consistently strong, with landing gear and articulated panels that held together securely rather than feeling loose or fragile, a common complaint leveled at cheaper compatible-brick sets in general but one I did not run into here. What makes this the standout value of the whole haul is simple math: at roughly $200 CAD for a large, detailed, 1,300-plus piece ship, you are paying meaningfully less than an equivalent official LEGO Star Wars vehicle at similar scale and piece count typically costs.

What I Liked

  • Best price-to-scale ratio of any set in my entire 2024 Vonado haul
  • Strong piece quality and secure clutch power throughout
  • Genuine play value with an opening cargo bay and cockpit, not just static display
  • Achievable weekend build rather than a multi-day project

What I Didn’t

  • Still not a licensed product, some purists will always prefer paying more for the official version
  • Minifigure-scale accessories tend to be the weakest point in compatible-brick sets generally

The Value Verdict

Rating: 5/5

This is the set in my entire 2024 collectibles haul that I would buy again without a second thought. It hits the sweet spot of scale, detail, price, and build satisfaction better than anything else in this series, official or otherwise.

Where to Buy

Jurassic World Aftermath Collection: Tense, Stylish, and a Little Too Short

DLC Review · Purchased February 16, 2024 · $17.91 CAD via PSN

Key art for Jurassic World Aftermath Collection
Jurassic World Aftermath Collection. Photo: PlayStation Store

The Setup

A stealth-adventure VR experience set in a dinosaur-infested Jurassic Park facility, distinguished by a cel-shaded, comic-book art style rather than attempting photorealism, bundling both included episodes into one collection.

The Review

The art direction is genuinely the standout feature here: sneaking around a facility while avoiding raptors hits differently when the whole world looks like it stepped out of a graphic novel, and it holds up better over the course of the game than a more realistic art style might have on comparable hardware. Tension-building is well handled throughout, with a strong sense of danger even though the actual dinosaur encounters are more about evasion than direct confrontation. Where reviews (and my own experience) landed more critical was pacing across the back half of both included episodes, where the core stealth loop starts to feel a bit repetitive before the credits roll.

What I Liked

  • Distinctive, well-executed cel-shaded art style
  • Genuinely tense stealth gameplay in the front half
  • Both episodes bundled together for a reasonable price

What I Didn’t

  • Gameplay loop wears thin by the later stages
  • Overall runtime is on the shorter side even with both episodes included

The Verdict

Rating: 3/5

Reasonable at this price for a good tension-building VR experience, just do not expect a long campaign or a lot of mechanical variety across the runtime.

Where to Buy

Vonado’s Horizon “Thunder Claw”: Building the Machine LEGO Never Made

Vonado Review · Purchased February 11, 2024 · $427.99 CAD via Vonado

Thunderjaw Horizon building block set
A Thunderjaw compatible-brick build. Photo via FantasMall.

Some of the best entries in a compatible-brick catalogue exist specifically because the official license holder never got around to making them.

The Background

LEGO has released exactly one officially licensed Horizon product: the Forbidden West Tallneck set (76989), a mid-size build that came out to solid reviews but left an obvious gap for fans of the game’s other, more aggressive machines. There has never been an official LEGO Thunderjaw or any similarly named “Thunder Claw” set. What I bought is a fan (MOC) design manufactured and sold as a compatible kit through Vonado, filling a hole in the official catalogue that LEGO itself has simply never addressed.

This arrived as part of the same large February order as the Star Wars sets earlier in this series, and at $427.99 it represented a real step up in both price and ambition from those smaller builds.

Living With It

Machine-creature builds like this live or die on articulation, and this is where the set earns its price tag. The legs, head, and tail all have genuine poseable joints rather than being fixed in one aggressive dinosaur-esque stance, which meant I could actually pose it in a way that matched reference art from the game rather than settling for whatever the instructions defaulted to. Getting that kind of mechanical complexity right, with joints that hold their pose under the model’s own weight instead of drooping, is a genuinely harder engineering problem than a static ship or building, and it shows in both the piece count and the build time, which ran closer to a full weekend than a single evening.

The tradeoff for all of that is durability handling: with this many articulated joints, this is not a set you want younger hands or a curious pet handling roughly, since the connection points that allow posing are inherently a little less rigid than a fully fixed structure would be.

What I Liked

  • Fills a real gap, there is no official LEGO equivalent at this scale or price
  • Genuinely impressive articulation and poseability for a brick-built creature
  • Shell and plating detail translates the source game’s design language well
  • A satisfying weekend-length build rather than a quick evening project

What I Didn’t

  • Poseable joints mean less structural rigidity than a fixed-position build
  • Not something to display somewhere it might get bumped or handled roughly
  • A meaningful price jump from the smaller sets earlier in the same order

The Value Verdict

Rating: 4/5

For a Horizon fan, this is close to essential specifically because nobody else has made it. LEGO’s own catalogue leaves this exact machine on the table, and Vonado’s version fills that gap with a genuinely well-engineered build. Just budget real assembly time and a stable shelf for it once it is done.

Where to Buy

PowerWash Simulator: SpongeBob SquarePants Pack, The Most Charming of the Bunch

DLC Review · Purchased February 3, 2024 · $12.31 CAD via PSN

Key art for PowerWash Simulator: SpongeBob SquarePants Special Pack
PowerWash Simulator: SpongeBob SquarePants Special Pack. Photo: Steam

The Setup

Bought one day after the Back to the Future pack, this crossover sends you scrubbing down Bikini Bottom locations, the Krusty Krab included, using the same core PowerWash Simulator gameplay loop.

The Review

Of the five PowerWash crossover packs in my 2024 haul, this is the one I would call the most charming purely on aesthetic fit: SpongeBob’s exaggerated, colourful art style translates into the game’s cleaning mechanics in a way that feels almost purpose-built for it, grime and grease disappearing off cartoonishly oversized objects with the same satisfying visual payoff the base game is built around. The attention to specific, recognizable Bikini Bottom locations shows the same level of care the Back to the Future pack demonstrated a day earlier.

What I Liked

  • Aesthetic and gameplay loop fit together unusually well
  • Recognizable, well-realized Bikini Bottom locations
  • Consistent quality with the rest of the crossover line

What I Didn’t

  • Same short-content-for-the-price tradeoff as every other pack in this line
  • Appeal is entirely tied to fondness for the source material

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

Cheap, short, and well made, consistent with everything else in this DLC line, and a personal favourite among the five packs I bought this year specifically for how well the visual style fits the gameplay.

Where to Buy

PowerWash Simulator: Back to the Future Special Pack, The One That Started My Crossover Addiction

DLC Review · Purchased February 2, 2024 · $12.31 CAD via PSN

Key art for PowerWash Simulator: Back to the Future Special Pack
PowerWash Simulator: Back to the Future Special Pack. Photo: Steam

The Setup

The first of five separate PowerWash Simulator crossover packs I bought across 2024, this one lets you scrub down the DeLorean and other Back to the Future locations using the base game’s signature power-washing gameplay loop.

The Review

PowerWash Simulator’s crossover packs have become a genuine phenomenon within the game’s community specifically because they are so consistently well produced: a handful of new levels built tightly around the licensed property, recognizable music cues and voice work where licensing allows, and level design that clearly understands what made each specific piece of media memorable in the first place. The Back to the Future pack nails the small details, cleaning grime off the DeLorean’s iconic panel lines feels specifically satisfying in a way a generic vehicle would not.

What I Liked

  • Faithful, detail-oriented level design
  • Short but genuinely well-crafted content
  • Strong recognizable music and audio cues

What I Didn’t

  • Very short additional playtime for the price if you are not already invested in the base game
  • A pack you either want specifically for the license or can easily skip

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

If you already own the base game and like the property, these packs are short but polished, which turned out to be the norm across every single one I bought this year.

Where to Buy