The set

The set

My eldest daughter and I visited a LEGO shop recently and I wanted to buy her a gift. The catch was that we were going to be flying on an airplane the next day, so I wanted to find something with the lowest risk of losing parts on the plane.

We settled on Ariel, Belle, Cinderella and Tiana's Storybook Adventures which had a number of things going for it: It was reasonably priced at under £20, for the size of the set; it included four human minifigs (albeit in a sub-minifig size, some kind of munchkin size, but that did not seem to matter) and an assortment of animal accompaniments; but mostly, it folded up into a self-contained mock fairytail "book", and opened up into an enclosed "tray" play area, minimising the risk of losses on the flight.

The set in its resting state

The set in its resting state

Lego have done a few of these styles of sets, all Disney princess themed, and it looks like they have a few more on their product roadmap. The newer ones incorporate a locking mechanism with a cute Lego key. I love the concept and think it should be extended to other themes/properties. I can imagine a Lego Star Wars-themed version with a little Death Star trench in the middle, or even an original IP like Classic Space, or Medieval.

Exploring a DIY Lego book frame

Exploring a DIY Lego book frame

I really liked the Book device which reminded me of hollow books as a child. The cover and spine pieces are bespoke Lego bricks made for purpose, but I thought you could create something similar with generic parts. Holly and I had a go at the concept with what bricks we had to hand. It's definitely viable (and you could do a lot better with a wider selection of bricks / more skilled builders) and it will be fun to pick something to try and build on the spine.