Introducing the 2011 LEGO Creator set, 5770 Lighthouse Island!

To grab your attention, READ HERE: Over the past few weeks, I've purchase and built four sets, all from different themes.

They include:

1) Pirates of the Caribbean's Queen Anne

2) Maersk Cargo Train

3) City Fishing Boat

4) This Creator Lighthouse

Why do I point this out, you must be asking? The answer is, because this set was the most enjoyable build.

Let's have a look at it in greater detail...

STATISTICS

Set Number: 5770

Set Name: Creator Lighthouse

Theme: Creator

Release Date: May 2011

Pieces: 518

Price: $39.99 (USF) found at TRU

Minifigs: 1

Accessories: small boat, two pelicans

Special Elements: light brick

BOX ART

THE BUILD

The set includes seven (7) bags in total and are not numbered:

And two large blue baseplates: one 16x16; the other 6x16:

One minifigure is included, the Lighthouse Keeper. I would have rather preferred a minifig similar to that of the black hat wearing nautical fig included in World City set 7045 Hovercraft Hideout (Doc 13):

The first build is that of a small motor boat - not too impressed with the overall design:

The motor sub-assembly attaches to the back:

The build starts with a simple baseplate foundation with a mix of bricks in different colors:

Then a layer of green plates:

Building layer upon layer of the walls for the house and the lighthouse tower, one will be surprised to find the beginning of a rod and gear system:

Then another gear sub-assembly to attach in the opposite direction:

And another:

The tower is then topped with a layer of white plates and grey 2x2 plates. A few black slopes attach to the rod that turns when cranking. Two small silver stickers are supposed to be plased on the slopes and reflect light when turned. Not pictured are the silver sticker pieces:

The set includes LEGO's working light brick:

which is placed within the tower section sideways. Lights used in real lighthouse are known as Fresnel Lenses.

The completed tower:

When lit, the light looks like this:

Railing is made with skeleton legs and white water spouts. Surprisingly, the different pieces line up well:

Completing the tower, a few seagulls are added to the house and dock. The design is clever:

A close-up of the dock:

And the completed lighthouse:

A fantastic feature of this set is the backside:

The back wall opens with the use of two sets of standard brick hinges:

Not much interior space and scarce furnishings, but still a great feature with the open back. I would have liked to see a more complex stair system, but the simple plate with cheese slopes does suffice:

Interior Details

The set includes the typical extra pieces, but also a 4x10 black plate. Checked the instructions, didn't leave it off when building this model:

Extra Pieces

So what do I think of this set?

MY THOUGHTS

Having the Creator Beach House, the Appletree House, the Log Cabin, and now Lighthouse Island, this set is my personal favorite of the Creator sets (NOTE: I don't own and of the others for a comparison, but that's because I didn't like them well enough to purchase). At the same time, I've waited many years for a nice LEGO lighthouse only admiring Dolphin Point from afar. This set is MORE than I bargained for, and well worth the wait. I was surprised to discover the rod and gear system upon building the tower, and the attached house is equally nice. The working light is a superb feature and simply turns on when pressing a black round 2x2 brick attached to the large radar dish atop the tower. Unfortunately; like other sets with the light brick, the light does not stay on without pressing. The set is not LEGO City, but I'd hate to imagine a more junorized version. At the same time, this set makes an outstanding addition to a City Habor by the Bay. Now I need to add that harbor scene to my Train Town.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT

What would have made this set better?

- As mentioned above, I would have loved to see a spiralling set of stairs similar to Dolphin Point; however, space is rather limited within the tower.

- A light brick that stays on for a few minutes after pressing.

- More of a traditional Light Keeper minifig - you know, the kind with a blue jacket, gold buttons, and a skipper hat.

- More accessories, like a few brown buckets of lamp oil, a fishing pole, and some detailed furnishings for the house.

SUMMARY

For $40 (USD), I think this set is a great buy. I'm tempted to buy one more set adding on to the tower to double its height. The set looks nice, has a great design, and will make a fine addition to a seaport (if one has the space in their table towns). Having two alternate models only adds to the overall quality.

All things considered, I give this set 5 stars. I hope you have enjoyed this exclusive EB review and I look forward to reading your thoughts.

NOTE: see additional images on Page 2.

Edited May 8, 201113 yr by WhiteFang
Indexed

Great Review! I love the close-up, in-your-face view of the build I'm looking forward to this set, I could always use more white and red. So many sets are out now and I just can't afford them all. I wish the Battle of Alamut, HQ in Alien Conquest and this were cheaper...

My only complaint is that the set has no fishing pole. I have yet to have one. =/

Awesome review and the set is fantastic.I'm planning to buy this set ,because my city has a beach and a little coast.

By the way where does the staircase ends,does it have some space for the figure?

Very great review! I shall build it.

Thanks for the review. $40 seems well spent.

Great review! The red and white macaroni bricks are a nice change from the houses with perpendicular corners.

The simple staircase is really unavoidable at this scale. I visited a real lighthouse once and the spiral staircase ran along the outer wall, leaving very little living space in the center.

Thanks for a great review 'The Brickster', it's a nice set....my only issue is the lighthouse is too small !

It's not high enough and not wide enought either. Still it's a good build and I guess can be modified in to something larger.

I do like the outboard motor though.

Brick On Everyone !

Great review 'Brickster' I love these creator sets, especially now that they include minifigs and other accessories. I hope you do get another. I would like to see it added

Wonderful and interesting review :) you've made some excellent reviews lately that's for sure.

I really love this set - Creator house sets are becoming better and better

The torso on the minifig is quite cool - where is that from originally?

Combine with with the spiral staircase from the Pet Shop and it would be great; although it might need a bit of help to expand its girth. I think I know what to ask for a birthday.

Lovely set, can anyone tell me though - do the silver reflector stickers attach over multiple bricks?

Brilliant review 'Brickster'

I must admit after seeing it up close it is actually alot smaller than I originally thought.

But anyway it's a great set, I'm just happy lego have made more sets which will fit on (or near) a Beach.

Thanks for the review!

This set looks pretty good both as a Creator set and as a City compatible set.

I really like the "rounded square" geometry chosen instead of the fully round option.

Can you tell us more about how the light brick works? I suppose this is not a new part, but I am not aware yet at how do you turn it on/off (do you have to crack open the lighthouse to do that?) and whether you can replace the battery.

Thanks for the great review, Brickster.

I look forward to picking up this one, that rotating light mechanism is an unexpected bonus in a Creator set.

:classic:

I have to agree that it's a bit smaller than I had thought, but it's still a great set. At first, I also thought that the lens looked disproportionately tall compared to the height of the base, but from your pictures, it looks fine. Thanks for the review!

great review! but the base plates are almost a deal breaker for me. i hate full size baseplates

I'm waiting for someone to say the box is false advertising, because the seagulls don't really fly and catch fish. But seriously, WOW. What a great set and great value. I love how it works with this year's Marina subtheme for the City sets. The minifig is cute, definitely a step up for Creator minifigs. Working mechanisms - extra points. The alternate builds look pretty cool, too. Have you done the "boathouse" build yet?

My only quibble here is that it's disappointing that they made a mechanism for turning the light and a separate button turns the light on. So there's no way you can make the light sweep the harbor. But the gear system is pretty cool in its own right.

I'd like this for myself, but given the amount of money I'm already planning to spend on Kingdoms and POTC I think this will be an excellent set for my daughter.

Excellent Review! I'd been wanting to see this set up close

Thanks for the great pictorial review, 'The Brickster'. It definately looks like an interesting model. Really great, TLC has added minifigs to the Creator houses, as they brigde the gap between city and modular.

I really like the oven in the house. It's really a nice little feature.

I just wonder, how the light brick is attached inside the tower. Does it rotate together with the slopes... or?

Thank you all for the very nice feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed the review and appreciate this fantastic Creator set. To answer some of your questions, I've taken some additional images in daylight.

The lighthouse measures 10 1/2 inches high from the base to the tip of the tower. While I appreciate a tall lighthouse as well, for those of you who don't know, some lighthouses in the United States, esp. those along the western coast are shorter due to fog. Fog obscures the tall lighthouses requiring a lower point of light. Point Loma in San Diego is an example of a short lighthousee. The original tower was much taller, but lowered because of heavy fog in the area.

Rusty's Pizza Parlor in Santa Barbara, California, was once a working lighthouse; another "shorter light":

NOTE: I still want to make mine taller.

Here's a side image that shows the location of the crank for turning the reflection system below the light brick:

The opposite side has the wonderful arched door:

While I like having the ability to add pelicans and other pieces to the roof, two-way slopes look so much better than the existing 2-stud wide plate:

A close-up of the house:

Lighthouse Fact: many lighthouses in the United States that have been decommissioned by the US Lighthouse Service (aka as the Bureau of Lighthouses), have been puchased by the public and made into "bed-and-breakfast" establishments.

While it is difficult to see inside the lighthouse tower, this images better shows the turnable refraction assembly. Someone had asked if the silver stickers cover multiple bricks. The answer is NO, there are two small silver stickers that get placed on the two slopes inside (one each). My guess is that when turning, these will refract the light outside the tower:

A real lighthouse lens system magnifies the light in a similar fashion:

When removing the radar dish on top of the tower, the inner section is NOT accessible. This will make changing batteries or removing the light brick difficult:

A real lighthouse has spiraling stairs like this:

Understanding the limitations due to the size of this LEGO lighthouse, creating a similar assembly would be rather difficult:

Lastly, here's a daytime shot of the beautiful Lighthouse Island:

Photo-edited to appreciate the LEGO Bay:

I just got done building this. It was a fun build, but a few things puzzled me. Like, on the crank, why did they use yellow(they don't have white?). It looks odd. Also, why the 1x1 yellow with hole...it serves no purpose a regular 1x1 could've. As you mentioned, the ladder leaves something to be desired, but given the space inside, I get it. Overall, I'm happy with this set, but for my city the boathouse would be better suited. I like the minifigure and am glad we didn't get a bland one like the Log Cabin and Hillside House sets.

TheBrickster, did you also have an extra grille piece in black? I double checked in the instructions and only had the 2 on his little BBQ...

Edited May 7, 201113 yr by Legocrazy81

TheBrickster, did you also have an extra grille piece in black? I double checked in the instructions and only had the 2 on his little BBQ...

Yes- in fact I did. I ended up going through the steps to see if I had missed its placement:

EDIT: Did you place the stickers?

Yes- in fact I did. I ended up going through the steps to see if I had missed its placement:

*snip*

EDIT: Did you place the stickers?

Yeah, I did. I'm glad they didn't overlap pieces. That's why I put them on, otherwise I would've passed. Although, I can't really tell if they enhance the light coming out of the windows..or I suppose they're meaning is to refract the light out on the water, hence the 2x2 slope brick..

I can't really tell if they enhance the light coming out of the windows

That's what I was wondering. I thought they might cause the light to shine outward more than light the inside of the beacon.

While I like having the ability to add pelicans and other pieces to the roof, two-way slopes look so much better than the existing 2-stud wide plate:

The house is an odd number of studs wide so you can't use a 2 way slope to cap it off. The dimensions of the house itself are dictated by the unusual dimensions of the arched door. Conversely, it does allow for a roof that doesn't have the typical shape through the use of slope bricks with two different angles.

I just got done building this. It was a fun build, but a few things puzzled me. Like, on the crank, why did they use yellow(they don't have white?). It looks odd. Also, why the 1x1 yellow with hole...it serves no purpose a regular 1x1 could've.

I suspect the 1x1 bricks with holes in them serve a different purpose in one of the alternate models where the yellow color is more important.