With its newest range of sets, LEGO is harnessing the power of dreams (and science!) to unlock new levels of creativity and experimentation for kids across the world. While LEGO bricks have always allows kids the freedom to use their wild imaginations for creating wacky creatures or crazy contraptions, LEGO DREAMZzz allows them to take existing creations and imagine how they might be different – a perfect blend of experimentation and structure.
The creation of the LEGO DREAMZzz world was guided by research that surveyed over 30,000 people and “looked into children’s imaginations, the psychology of dreams and their importance in processing emotions, problem-solving and the importance of play for creative experimentation.
The research provided some interesting insights, including showing that of those experiencing complex emotions, such as stress or loneliness, almost one in five (22%) report having more nightmares as a result. More than half of children (55%) say nightmares affect the rest of their day, including school, where the dream and real-worlds can evidently collide.”
From this, the LEGO DREAMZzz theme was born – a TV series about teens who travel between the real world and the dream world, using their creativity to fight against evil; and a series of real life LEGO sets that allow kids to customize characters and scenes from the show, and to make their own choices about what they build.
Even If It’s Just In Your Wildest LEGO DREAMZzz
LEGO DREAMZzz the TV series follows siblings Izzie and Mateo who (during a pretty hectic shared dream), find out that they can travel to a place called the ‘dream world’ – a world where they can create anything they can imagine, but where they also face threats unlike any they’ve ever encountered during their ordinary high school existence. A world where the Nightmare King acts as an ever-looming threat, and where he is able to control evil forces that begin to affect Izzie, Mateo, and their friends – Cooper, Logan, and Zoey – in both the dream world, and in reality. The teens must learn to work together and use their imaginations to transform things from their everyday lives in new ways to solve dream world problems and protect themselves.
The sets themselves are based on some of the teens’ dream creations, and can be used to act out scenes from the show, or to imagine your own story inspired by the DREAMZzz world.
Sweet LEGO DREAMZzz Are Made of This
The instructions for LEGO DREAMZzz sets are structured a little differently to the ones we’re all used to. For this range, around 80% of the build is completed by following instructions, and the rest depends on the choices you make. The instruction booklet is set out more like a comic book than a manual, with illustrations showing how the events of the story play out – up until the point where you have to decide. You’ll be given a split path, with a choose your own adventure style prompt telling you to turn to a different page depending on which object you want to create – and from there you’ll see the end of the story play out. It’s a cool way to put you in a creative headspace, engaging you in a story and keeping you invested in the outcome.
My LEGO DREAMZzz, It’s Never Quite As It Seems
In order to fully explore what the world of LEGO DREAMZzz has to offer, I was kindly sent one of the sets – the Pegasus Flying Horse – to check out for myself. Fully aware that this was a world aimed at kids, and that I am a grown adult woman, I expected to have fun, but also to struggle to fully immerse myself in the narrative of what DREAMZzz is aiming to achieve with kids. To be clear, I do build a lot of LEGO – but the big, guided kind that allows me to construct fantastic creations without having to dream them up myself. Somewhere along the line, I lost that childish ability to just harness complete absurdity and let my imagination run wild. But honestly? While building my Pegasus Flying Horse, watching some episodes of the show in the background, I felt myself clawing some of that creativity back. I found myself wanting to play again.
The Pegasus Flying Horse set comes with the means to make a relatively large horse, along with a winged saddle that allows the Nightmare King minifigure to ride it into battle. To fight him, the set also includes (the absolute best of the protagonists) Zoey, who can either a) fly into battle on the back of a sweet bird mount, or b) have her own butterfly wings to allow her to hover like a badass – the choice is yours. I went with the bird, but even once my whole set was complete, I found myself wanting to do… more. I found myself just adding extra bits to the set for no other reason than I thought it looked cool, and that if I were Zoey dreaming up my own dream bird mount, I might adorn its wings with things like extra eyes and random horns. I perched another of the set’s minifigures, dream minion Susan (an incredible name) on the shoulders of the Pegasus, so that she could join the evil overlord in the fight. I even went a step further and gave the extra carrot (intended to be used as ammo for Zoey’s bow) to the set’s other minifigure, Nova, who has been imprisoned by the king. I started imagining a storyline in which she used it to befriend the Pegasus to save the day, and it was at that point I realised… oh my god. I wasn’t just building a LEGO set anymore – I was playing with it in a way I hadn’t since I was a kid.
It should of course be noted that I’m a writer. My day job involves dreaming up dialogues between elves and dwarves. I’m sort of primed to be susceptible to being pulled into this headspace. But at the same time… this felt new to me. Taking inspiration from the LEGO set and adapting it to suit my new headcanon, without fear that doing so would mess up the way the set was ‘supposed’ to look? That was an unfamiliar feeling for this perfectionist. So I’m pretty sure that even though it’s aimed at kids, this LEGO DREAMZzz world must be doing something right if it can even pull me into having this kind of fun with it.
Have You Any LEGO DREAMZzzz You’d Like to Sell
If you’re interested in checking out any of the LEGO DREAMZzz sets for yourself, you can find them online at LEGO.com, or from a range of stores. Here’s a full list of the sets available, but you can check out the full catalogue, including more detailed images of how cool some of them are, right here.
71453 – Izzie and Bunchu the Bunny (259 pieces, RRP: $35.99 AUD)
71454 – Mateo and Z-Blob the Robot (237 pieces, RRP: $34.99 AUD)
71455 – Grimkeeper the Cage Monster (274 pieces, RRP: $62.99 AUD)
71456 – Mrs. Castillo’s Turtle Van (424 pieces, RRP: $72.99 AUD)
71457 – Pegasus Flying Horse (482 pieces, RRP: $84.99 AUD)
71458 – Crocodile Car (494 pieces, RRP: $104.99 AUD)
71459 – Stable of Dream Creatures (681 pieces, RRP: $139.99 AUD)
71460 – Mr. Oz’s Spacebus (878 pieces, RRP: $139.99 AUD)
71461 – Fantastical Tree House (1,257 pieces, RRP: $179.99 AUD)
71469 – Nightmare Shark Ship (1,389 pieces, RRP: $239.99 AUD)
40657 – Dream Village (434 pieces, RRP: $44.99)
