21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V [VIDEO REVIEW]

[Sariel]

I'm not sure if reviews are welcome in this part of the forum, but it seemed to me like a more fitting place than e.g. historic themes. If I'm wrong, please move the thread.

Pros and cons followed by TWO videos below (a review and a separate speed build video):

Pros:
- incredibly BIG, surprisingly detailed and accurate
- comes with a beautiful instructions book featuring the whole story of the Apollo 11 program; a wonderfull lesson in history
- includes unique and useful printed pieces and nice nanofigures, too
- great display set; the rocket can be displayed vertically or horizontally, and accompanied by the Moon landing and splashdown scenes
- features craziest building techniques I've seen in an official LEGO set 
- relatively cheap at 5.6p / 6.1c per piece

Cons:
- limited playability; primarily a display set
- very tall and quite heavy; easy to knock down and thus potentially unsafe for young children
- wanting instructions; to properly reenact the Apollo 11 mission, you need to alter the CSM module in a way not explained in the instructions
- can be difficult to build due to the very unusual building techniques being used
- parts of the build are pretty boring, as you have to build 4 copies of the same part repeatedly

 

 

[lcvisser]

Great review Sariel! I love this set, got it on the first day it came out.

Just to clarify: there's no "white command module"; the LES came with a white cover protecting the (grey) command module. So when the LES detaches, it reveals the CM. The instructions clearly show the grey command module in the turn-around procedure. But maybe I'm just too much into this 

Neil Armstrong passed away in 2012... maybe you want to remove the reference...

PS: I think I saw another one somewhere on the forums, but I don't recall where.

[Sariel]

The instructions show the grey command module, but without the print on it, and they don't show where to take it from or that you have to remove the white one. It just suddenly goes from white to gray, which may well look like a printing error.

I'm aware of mr. Armstrong's passing and I'm sure he would have liked the set. The YT videos are non-editable, as I'm sure you know.

[Leonardo da Bricki]

Another nice review! I think it is proper for this model to be in the forum.

@Ludo Visser I was also tempted to point out that the Command Module is covered.

Edited September 25, 2017 by Leonardo da Bricki
Curse of Misspelling was cast