I am very torn on this one!!
On the one hand, it looks brilliant. On the other, I feel looking at it too much may cause it to collapse. Here is my review of a frustrating but kind of satisfying build of the Jaws LEGO set - 21350.
This set has moved to the top of my most anger inducing, frustrating builds, and I include Technic sets in this list. My main issue is lies firmly at the hull of the boat. I have never built a set that collapses in on itself as much as this. There is surely a design flaw in this? I spent the best part of two hours trying to complete the build of the front, and then another hour trying to get it on the rest of the boat.
I lost count of the amount of times the curved slope popped off inside the hull. I kept thinking I had mastered it and then there was that rattling inside again indicating that nope, it had fallen off for the fifty-seventh time.
My blood pressure was rising with each moment that passed. Once the hull was together it was then a nightmare to fit onto the rest of the boat. I am unsure if the brick with bars is the best fit for this set. It requires a small amount of force to click everything into place, force which the hull cannot cope with. So after completing the front, I had to rebuild it again at least four times after it broke up on trying to fit to the rest of the set. Honestly, I was ready to quit. The only thing that kept me going is I thought it would look great once completed - and that is true.
After finally getting the blasted thing in place my heart sank when I moved on with the build. Again, I can only think this is a bit of a flaw. Now after struggling my way getting the boat together and then fiddling about with the ropes, I was instructed to tip the boat over and build at the bottom. Surely this stage should of been done earlier? Now the ropes were falling off, and I had to very, very carefully click everything in place at the bottom.
I actually managed to do this part without the hull collapsing again, but with each movement I felt it slowly slipping apart and had to hastily try and squeeze it back together, but not too hard or it would of fallen apart again. Honestly, the stress was real!!!!
Now, once this is all together, and I got over my stress, the build looks lovely. The boat looks amazing and really does look like the one in the film.
I had more fun building Jaws himself, and I enjoyed how this part of the build came together. I am never a big fan of extra bits though, so I could of done without the stand for the shark. I can see why some people might like it, but the real beauty is in the whole set so I don't see the point in separating them.
I also really like the base. It looks bloody amazing! It sounds like I hated this set. This is where I am torn, I hated building a lot of the set as it was way too stressful, but the overall result is a mighty fine looking tribute to one of the most amazing and scary films ever made. So is that worth the price of gaining a couple more grey hairs? Probably!!
I also had an issue I have never, ever had before with a LEGO set. Sure, I have spent many hours thinking it has happened, but eventually I realise the piece that was missing was in my lap the whole time. This time though, I was missing a piece. Strangely, I had one extra curved slope and a missing inverted arch. To rub salt into my wounds the tile with the famous quote from the film on is not printed very well - never mind needing a bigger boat, I need a better printer! I sent an email to LEGO regarding this, and in their defence they replied very quickly and are sending out the parts. I wonder if they rushed these out due to the demand for them and they made a couple of mistakes? I have never had an issue before.
The set also comes with three minifigures - Chief Martin Brody, Sam Quint and Matt Hooper. These are really good looking minifigures. If you have the set how many of you have been tempted to take off Sam's legs and leave him to the mercy of Jaws?
In summary then, a great looking set but a ridiculously frustrating build. If this is a set you want then you might want to weigh up how much you want it displayed versus how much you value keeping a reasonably low blood pressure.
Comments