We will think about that 21321 Worldwide Area Station (ISS) could be a divisive set amongst Lego collectors (we’re emphasizing ‘collector’ as a result of that is a kind of units that’s undoubtedly not a toy).
Important data:
Value: $69.99/£59.99
Mannequin quantity: 21321
Items: 864
Completed dimensions: 51cm x 20cm x 31cm
Really helpful age: 16+
For the spaceflight followers, the completed mannequin is a wonderful illustration of the ISS. It’s acquired nice stature, with the 51cm-long central truss, and the massive solar arrays including depth, properly completed off with a UCS-style plaque. However, Lego followers searching for an attention-grabbing and secure construct could be disenchanted.
The International Space Station is a part of the Lego Concepts line, based mostly on a design by Lego fan Christoph Ruge. It’s properly offered in its field, which has a lift-up lid fairly than having to interrupt open a seal on the aspect. We have a tendency to search out that the packing containers with lids and a tray are higher for placing all of the items in whereas constructing to keep away from by chance knocking any onto the ground. Inside are 6 baggage of bricks, plus a chunky 128-page handbook.
In actuality, it took greater than 40 space flights, together with 36 shuttle flights, over a few dozen years for astronauts to construct the ISS. Now, you’ll be able to construct it in a few hours, and in contrast to the true one, you gained’t need to de-orbit it in 2030!
Lego Worldwide Area Station: Construct
Bag 1 accommodates a number of mini-builds, together with a implausible snub-nosed space shuttle to provide you one thing to swoosh round, and a handful of small, easy capsules.
Bag 2 is the stand, which makes use of a big black 6×16 plate as a base, and featured 4 stanchions niftily held in place by Technic pins, on high of which sits a cradle to carry the space station.
By this stage, we have been changing into keen to truly start building of the ISS itself. Bag 3 accommodates a lot of the components for the station’s central truss. Truthfully, we didn’t discover it to be essentially the most partaking construct – it’s mainly an extended white and darkish gray rectangle, with no significantly attention-grabbing components.
Picture 1 of 4
Issues grew to become extra attention-grabbing with the attachment of the varied modules, that are primarily constructed by skewering them with a Technic rod. The directions counsel that this stage is greatest tried when the truss is connected to the stand, though the station solely frivolously clasps to the stand by two studs on both aspect, leaving it susceptible to simply being dislodged. Including the modules does depart the mannequin again heavy, which additional provides to the danger of it toppling off the stand.
Printed items are one of many highlights of the set. There are docking latches printed on round 2×2 tiles, and tiny airlocks printed on 1×1 round tiles. There are additionally the numerous printed solar arrays on darkish blue tiles, a few of which affix to the station’s solar panels, others clip onto the varied capsule mini-builds. There’s additionally some neat gold antennas and silver-chromed dishes that shall be of curiosity to the devoted Lego builder searching for attention-grabbing items.
Finishing the construct are the eight solar panel arrays, that are easy however repetitive builds. Nevertheless, we discovered that when these are added they improve the dimensions of the mannequin dramatically, and they’re held in place securely by Technic pins that permit them to tilt to face within the path of the Solar.
Lego Worldwide Area Station: Design
Lego’s ISS mannequin appears to be like nice. It’s acquired a way of scale – if we step again and squint at it, we are able to virtually think about that it’s the true factor. And regardless of the rickety nature of components of the construct, we did really feel a way of accomplishment as we added the modules one after the other, such because the Columbus lab module, and Kibo, the Japanese module.
The ISS’ two robotic arms, Canadarm2 and the Japanese Experiment module Distant Manipulator System are additionally represented as movable options that may seize one of many mini capsules. There’s even a neat cone-piece with printed home windows to signify the viewing cupola.
One criticism we did have is that there’s little or no ancillary materials. The chunky handbook does a terrific job of offering clear directions properly (though we did spot one error, on web page 52, within the placement of some ‘cheese-slope’ items), and it additionally has a little bit background details about the ISS, a little bit extra element wouldn’t have gone amiss. Take the small capsule builds. As spaceflight followers, we all know roughly what the capsules are supposed to signify – in all probability a SpaceX Dragon capsule, and a few Soyuz capsules.
For the uninitiated, nevertheless, these builds shall be mysterious, and nowhere within the handbook does it clarify what they’re. This ignorance additionally extends to the varied components of the station. It might have been good, for instance, had the completely different modules been named within the handbook – we needed to resort to trying it up on-line.
Nonetheless, though the varied modules stay anonymous, there’s plenty of element within the mannequin, with antennas, communication dishes, airlocks, robotic arms, warmth exchangers and numerous scientific experiments setup on the space station’s hull. So though you’ll be able to’t actually play with the mannequin, visually there’s tons to examine on it.
Ought to You Purchase the Lego Worldwide Area Station?
General, we discovered that the completed 21321 Worldwide Area Station appears to be like extremely spectacular and is a superb and surprisingly correct illustration of the ISS. For the worth, it truly is a big mannequin, so we felt like we acquired our cash’s value, though it’s so giant and unwieldy that discovering a secure place to show it may be tough! We’d undoubtedly advocate it to any space fan with an curiosity in Lego.
Different Lego space units to think about
The ISS is a superb companion piece to Lego’s different space units, comparable to Lego NASA Space Shuttle Discovery, which is a big, well-designed however costly ($199.99 (opens in new tab)/£159.99) set.
Alternatively, Lego NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander, is a comparative cut price at $99.99 (opens in new tab)/£89.99 and consists of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin mini-figures!
For youthful (and young-at-heart!) space followers, there’s additionally the Lego City range of space sets impressed by the Artemis missions, with a Rocket Launch Heart ($159.99 (opens in new tab)/£124.99), a Lunar Analysis Base ($129.99 (opens in new tab)/£89.99), a Lunar Area Station ($79.99 (opens in new tab)/£54.99) and a Lunar Roving Automobile ($39.99 (opens in new tab)/£24.99).
