The LEGO Alien Conquest Mothership

There's something about space and Lego that goes together very well and has done for a considerable number of years now. When I was a child in the early 80's we all had our space Lego. The little yellow, white, red and black space men were a part of my childhood.

Take me to your leader

There have been spacey type Lego models since the halcyon days of the 80's but now we've once again got proper space Lego. LEGO Alien Conquest treats you to proper alien spaceships and bright green aliens,along, obviously with the theme of conquest, of an alien nature. So when Lego offered to send me the boy a giant alien spaceship, I said yes without hesitation.

The Lego Mothership is a proper flying saucer, it has a rotating outer ring and even makes non copyrighted flying saucer type noises (I'll bet that the noises will sound very familiar when you hear them). For little hands it's a two handed toy but that's okay, because it flies down and really causes bedlam.

Although it's aged 8-14, younger kids can build it with some good dad assistance. This is of course code for "I'll play with the Lego and you can mill inefficiently around and get in the way." I have to admit our boy has a lot of Lego that isn't particularly age appropriate but as long as I help him build them, he can play for hours with the stuff. The fact it falls to bits with over vigorous play is actually a bonus because in real life things do fall to bits.

This is a big Lego model and if you're looking at something to keep your 9 year old busy on Christmas Day, this will do it. The RRP is £49.99 but you can pick it up for around £35 if you shop around. It's not cheap but you certainly get what you pay for and we've had great fun with it.