LEGO Ideas 40566 Ray the Castaway gift-with-purchase review

Remarkably authentic to its LEGO Ideas inspiration is the charming gift-with-purchase 40566 Ray the Castaway, available with orders above £120 / $120 / €120.

This gift-with-purchase, which is available from October 1 through to October 13 at LEGO.com and LEGO Stores while stocks last, is based on the winning design from the 2021 Ideas contest ‘Do you want to go to the seaside?’

Ray clearly doesn’t any more, having fashioned an ‘SOS’ in the sand from the various debris that has washed up on the tiny desert island he has seemingly been stranded on for a good while. As an official version of an Ideas entry, this is one of the closest 1-for-1 interpretations we can remember, for how much 40566 Ray the Castaway resembles the project that DadiTwins submitted last year.

As a result, it holds very true to a lot of the charm and creativity that made it a winning entry, even if that means that there are no new or exclusive parts to be found here. It’s a cute little creation that tells so much of a story in so little real estate, and the fact there’s only one minifigure is part of the point. One of the only changes that is a downgrade is the seagull has come out in place of a parrot.

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40566 Ray the Castaway also notably continues the LEGO Group’s impressive run of mini sets it has offered as a gift-with-purchase, all of which are more-than-credible as standalone creations you could otherwise expect to buy off the shelf.

This means that, once more, here’s a gift-with-purchase that offers its own, unique LEGO experience and more than decent value, should you find yourself reaching the qualifying spend in the first two weeks of October.

40566 Ray the Castaway is available from LEGO.com and LEGO Stores from October 1 to October 13 as a gift-with-purchase, awarded for LEGO purchases of £120 / $120 / €120 or more.

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