Mrs. Castillo’s Turtle Van Review

I wasn’t sure what to expect when we began opening up Mrs. Castillo’s Turtle Van from the LEGO Dreamzzz. I’ve seen LEGO themes crash and burn before, but for some reason despite the wackiness of Dreamzzz, my kids were super enthused by the entire theme. So, to do my homework, as we opened up the Turtle Van, we put on a few episodes of the show on Netflix, and my kids were hooked.

LEGO is a huge hit in our home, but like every toy it comes and goes from the playroom floor. Sometimes that happens within a day, but often that will happen within a week. We have so many toys coming and going from the house that there is always something new. And there have been new toys since this arrived, but guess what – it’s still out on the floor, and not only that, the kids have used money to purchase additional Dreamzzz sets.

So let’s get into Mrs. Castillo’s Turtle Van, one of the larger Dreamzzz sets currently available. I’ve always said I love compact sets, where things are all connected and you don’t have little pieces of the set here, and little pieces of the set there. This is one, completely connected, Turtle Van – ya, you heard me right: a turtle van.

The thing with LEGO Dreamzzz is that each set is based on something normal – a food truck / van in this instance – that gets transformed into something silly in the dream world. In this context, the local food truck lady also happens to have an adorable pet turtle that hangs out in the truck with her, so when her vehicle ends up in the dreamworld, well, you can connect the dots. And this same logic applies to the rest of the sets as well. There is an alligator – crocodile? – car, a unicorn blimp, and bunny mech, and so much more. It’s wacky, but all based in a reality that these characters live in. This has really helped my kids’ imagination as well – they are constantly turning their own toys into other things to use in the Dreamzzz world, and it’s adorable.

Again, putting aside the silliness of this theme, this set is phenomenal to build. It’s not the easiest set, although my 10 year old son Lochlan got it done in a fairly decent amount of time. The instruction manuals for these Dreamzzz sets do get a bit weird since each set can be built multiple ways. This isn’t the same as LEGO Creator 3-in-1 sets, however. They are not different builds using the same pieces, but rather manipulations to a set to make it two different things. For example, the base set here is the food truck / van, and you can build this van and place it within any LEGO city setup and you wouldn’t know it was from something else. The changes come when you add the pieces that bring this set into the dream world.

For Mrs. Castillo’s Turtle Van, that’s either a walking turtle, or a flying turtle, both which use the base van as the common denominator, but add different pieces to make it either a walking van or a flying van. At some point in the instructions, it tells you to turn to a specific page to continue the build. I love that they put everything into one book, and don’t require multiple books for the kids to use.

The one downside to all of this is that you are going to have pieces laying around that don’t “fit” into the set. For example, with the van, if you choose to build the flying turtle you will be putting a wing on it – if you choose to NOT have it fly, you will be taking that off, and it serves no other purpose.

After some research, I think the LEGO Dreamzzz theme is phenomenal for kids, and I cannot wait to dive further into the various sets this theme has. We have already purchased a few! Mrs. Costillo’s Turtle Van, however, was a fantastic place to start our LEGO Dreamzz collection – it can be your starting spot too! With a bunch of minifigures to play with, this set not only builds really nicely, but is great for playing with friends!