Review: LEGO Toy Story Alien with Pizza Planet Rocket Ride

LEGO Disney Pixar Toy Story Alien with Pizza Planet Rocket Ride 43307 New Release Review Brick Banter COVER

Blast off to Pizza Planet with new Toy Story sets!

The LEGO Disney and Pixar Toy Story Alien with Pizza Planet Rocket Ride is set to release in May! With Toy Story 5 now on our horizons, how do these new sets hold up? Well, here we are looking at a set that has no LEGO Minifigures at all – the Alien with Pizza Planet Rocket Ride set. How does our little green friend hold up? Read on.

The Rocket Ride

Fitting into what I would almost call a chibi-style, the Rocket Ride set is more about height than it is length. Having a surprisingly small footprint for the model base, the set immediately feels like a kiddie ride.

Adorned with a mix of prints and stickers, this set gives us references to both Pizza Planet and Toy Story 1. We get a nice bit of graffiti of ‘Sid wuz here’ on the side of the coin operator – a nod to the first film.

From a LEGO standpoint, this set has a lot of bulk. Most of it adorns the ship, but there is a simple mechanism within the model to allow it to tilt up and down. This isn’t anything new to me, but less familiar fans with technic will still enjoy some pay function in the set.

As for our Pizza Planet alien, he’s very… square. Although the original film doesn’t give these characters much physiology to work with, the character feels very stiff. I often think of the character being a little rounder towards the feet, and the head feel almost like a brick. I like the use of LEGO Minifigure shield elements for the eyes, but can’t help but feel like they are a bit too recessed. I’m not sure if there was another way to bring the eyes forward, but this seems odd to me.

As far as parts go, this set gives us a lot of curved elements, of which I am happy to add to my collection from a MOC standpoint. But I can’t help feel like the set is too… square.

Verdict

Overall, this is a set that I can say that I’m not 100% sold on. I know that I am not the intended audience here, but from a critical standpoint, something just feels.. off.

Is it the head being slightly too square? Is it that the eyes aren’t pronounced enough? I don’t know.

That being said, this is a set that is intended for display on a shelf, and that it does great. It is a nice model to have up and away to spark a conversation, but for me, this set is a pass. If you genuinely love these little guys, my opinion shouldn’t keep you from buying what you like. But as a long term LEGO fan, there isn’t anything here that has surprised me.