Month: March 2024

PowerWash Simulator: Warhammer 40,000 Special Pack, The Crossover Nobody Expected to Work This Well

DLC Review · Purchased March 11, 2024 · $12.31 CAD via PSN

Key art for PowerWash Simulator: Warhammer 40,000 Special Pack
PowerWash Simulator: Warhammer 40,000 Special Pack. Photo: Steam

The Setup

On paper, this is the strangest pairing in PowerWash Simulator’s entire crossover catalogue: the grim, ultra-serious tone of Warhammer 40,000 meets a game about cheerfully spraying grime off objects with a pressure washer.

The Review

That tonal mismatch is exactly why this became one of the most talked-about packs in the game’s community. Cleaning centuries of grime and battle damage off Space Marines, Titans, and other iconic 40K hardware, rendered in PowerWash Simulator’s cheerful, low-stakes visual language, creates a genuinely funny contrast that the developers clearly leaned into rather than shying away from. It helps that the underlying level design and attention to the source material’s iconography is just as careful here as in the more conventionally “fun” crossovers like SpongeBob or Back to the Future.

What I Liked

  • A genuinely inspired, funny tonal mismatch that works better than it has any right to
  • Strong attention to Warhammer 40K’s distinctive iconography
  • One of the most talked-about packs in the whole crossover line for good reason

What I Didn’t

  • The joke and appeal depend heavily on knowing Warhammer 40K’s tone well enough to appreciate the contrast
  • Same short runtime as every pack in this series

The Verdict

Rating: 5/5

Genuinely one of the standout packs in the whole PowerWash Simulator crossover line, and easily my favourite of the five I bought this year specifically because the concept should not work and absolutely does.

Where to Buy

The Coruscant Diorama: Buying Furniture With Extra Steps

Vonado Review · Purchased February 11, 2024 · $637.99 CAD via Vonado

Coruscant Jedi Temple diorama building block set
A Coruscant-themed diorama compatible-brick build. Photo via USABLOCKS.

At a certain price point, a building set stops being a toy and starts being a piece of home decor you happened to assemble yourself.

The Background

Large-format Star Wars dioramas, scenes depicting the Battle of Coruscant, the Jedi Temple, or the Senate district in sprawling, multi-thousand-piece detail, are a well-established genre within the MOC (fan design) community, with different builders and compatible-brick manufacturers producing their own interpretations at various scales. What I purchased from Vonado sits in that tradition: a Coruscant-themed display diorama, the fourth and priciest item in the large February order that runs through much of this series.

Sets like this are explicitly designed around presentation rather than play. There is no cockpit to sit a minifigure in, no opening cargo bay, nothing to actually do with it once assembled beyond looking at it, and the price reflects scale and part count rather than mechanical complexity.

Living With It

The build itself took the better part of a weekend, mostly due to sheer part count rather than any particular technical difficulty, section by section, layer by layer, in the way large diorama builds typically go. Once finished, the impact is real: this is a genuine centrepiece, the kind of thing that makes people stop and look when they walk past a shelf, in a way that smaller vehicle builds simply cannot match regardless of how well detailed they are.

The honest tradeoff is exactly what you would expect from a display piece at this price: it requires real, permanent shelf real estate, more than any single vehicle in this series, and once built, it is genuinely difficult to relocate or repack without risking damage to the more delicate architectural elements. This is a “pick its final spot before you start building” kind of set, not something you casually rearrange.

What I Liked

  • Genuinely impressive as a display centrepiece, more visual impact than any single vehicle build
  • Consistent with the strong scale-for-price value seen across the rest of this Vonado order
  • Detailed architectural elements that read clearly as Coruscant even at a glance

What I Didn’t

  • Zero play value, purely a display object
  • Requires committing real, permanent shelf space before you even start building
  • Delicate once assembled, not something you want to relocate often

The Value Verdict

Rating: 4/5

Judge this one entirely on whether you have the shelf space and the desire for a genuine centrepiece, because that is the whole pitch. If you wanted something to actually handle and rebuild, this was the wrong category to shop in from the start. If you wanted a showpiece, it delivers.

Where to Buy

Vonado’s Death Star Falcon Escape: A Small Set That Explains the Whole Vonado Pitch

Vonado Review · Purchased February 11, 2024 · $92.99 CAD via Vonado

Star Wars Death Star themed building block set
A comparable Death Star-themed compatible-brick build. Photo via USABLOCKS.

Before I get into any of the individual Vonado builds in this series, this is the right place to explain what Vonado actually is, because it colours every review in this category.

The Background

Vonado is not LEGO. It is a brand that manufactures Lego-compatible building brick sets, often based on designs originally created by hobbyist builders in the “MOC” (My Own Creation) community, then produced and sold at a significant discount to what an officially licensed LEGO Group product would cost at a comparable scale. This particular set, a compact Star Wars build built around the classic “escaping the Death Star aboard the Falcon” scene made famous by LEGO’s own sets over the years, was the smallest and cheapest of a much larger February 2024 haul that I will be covering across the next several posts.

I want to be direct about this upfront: if you go into a Vonado purchase expecting an official, licensed LEGO product, you will feel misled. If you go in understanding exactly what you are buying, a well-made compatible alternative built by a company that clearly loves the same source material, it is a genuinely reasonable way to get more Star Wars building into your collection for less money.

Living With It

At this price point, you are in small-to-midsize set territory: a compact ship model plus a slice of Death Star trench or hangar detailing, not a massive standalone display piece. Brick quality on Vonado’s smaller sets has generally matched what reviewers report across the compatible-brick space: clutch power (how snugly the pieces hold together) that is very close to genuine ABS LEGO plastic, with the occasional looser tolerance on smaller or more detailed pieces compared to official parts.

Build time here was an evening, not a weekend project, which made it a nice low-commitment entry point before diving into the much bigger sets that arrived in the same order. If you are curious about the compatible-brick space and do not want to gamble a few hundred dollars finding out whether you like it, a set at this scale and price is exactly the right place to start.

What I Liked

  • Genuinely close to official LEGO brick quality and clutch power at this scale
  • Clear instructions, no need to hunt for a digital manual
  • Manageable evening-length build, a good low-stakes entry point into the brand
  • Meaningfully cheaper than an equivalent official Star Wars set of similar size

What I Didn’t

  • Occasional looser tolerances on smaller detail pieces compared to genuine LEGO
  • Not a display centrepiece on its own, more of a nice addition to a larger collection
  • Requires accepting upfront that this is a compatible clone, not a licensed product

The Value Verdict

Rating: 4/5

As an entry point into Vonado’s whole catalogue, this delivered exactly what it needed to: proof that the brand’s smaller sets are worth trusting before committing real money to their much bigger builds. Reasonable value, honest about what it is, and a fun single-evening build.

Where to Buy