The winter holiday has finally passed and both my son and I have a wealth of new LEGO sets. One of the cool sets that my son received is Maula’s Ice Mammoth Stomper. He didn’t get many of the sets from the last wave of Chima sets, so he jumped for joy when this one arrived.

The colorful box reminded me of the big boxed sets of my childhood. It may not have opened up like they did, but the back depicted all of the various features of the big beast mech.

The contents didn’t disappoint either: six big bags of pieces and a plastic sleeve with the instruction booklets and stickers (and a sheet of cardboard to keep them from getting bent).

I expect a set of this size to have at least two instruction booklets, but these were a bit odd. Normally, the booklets divide the build into obvious modules. This set however split the construction of the mammoth itself across both books with an awkward transition. Not terrible, but certainly not as polished as they usually are.

My son put this set together on his own, with a little help from me as he got tired at the end.

The finished models are a bit of a mixed bag. I liked the six minifigs and the smaller fire bike quite a bit. The big mammoth has some issues though. I love the overall look and the function of the removable gunship. The problem is the legs. The ball joints that they used for the knees have a really weak clutch and they leave the whole thing rather floppy. It wouldn’t be a big deal if this wasn’t a play oriented set, but every time my son moves the thing, its legs buckle and it struggles to stand. A bit of a flaw there.

Though I might have reservations about this set, my son loves it. In the end, that is all that matters.