Hi, I'm here again presenting my 35th Review in Eurobricks. The Ship In A Bottle! 

*A quick note. The trans blue plates, dried leaves outside are not included in the set, they are just props throughout the review.* 

Overview

Name: 21313 Ship in a Bottle
Theme: LEGO Ideas year 2018 #020
Pieces: 962 pieces (284 of these are trans blue 1x1 plates as the water)
Minifigures: 0
Price: £69.99 / $69.99 / 69.99€

Box

 

This is a present that my sister bought from Singapore as shown in the sticker at the lower left corner of the box. The box art is nicely displaying the bottle on a tabletop in a ship with an awesome sunset outside of the window. LEGO Ideas #020 showing that this is the 20th LEGO Ideas set in 2018.

Here at the back of the box we can see a kraken chasing the ship and the bottle is landed on the shore. Scale is not quite right but very special and pretty peek through a telescope I think.

1:1 piece was the flag of the ship (no stickers ALL printed). I really love the drawings here. Oh that compass. 

The content of the box. (I've already built bag 1 before I took this picture.) The distribution of the pieces in the bags are quite neat. Bag1 is the ship, bag 2 trans clear parts, bag 3 water, bag 4 for the base and 4 large trans clear pieces for the top of the bottle. Note that round trans white round dish at the top left corner of bag 4, that's the compass and it is a very nice printed piece.

The front page of the instruction booklet is the box art.

The Fan design is a bigger bottle compared to the set but it would cost more if the set was that big, so how will you choose? A pricier but bigger bottle or this one will do? (That mosaic human sized tile is not bad at all.)

Quite an organised distribution of pieces in bags. 

This is one special build technique. Pouring the sea water. I love this. 

Trans Clear parts! LEGO is so amazing that these messy pieces will become a beautiful bottle after they are correctly assembled. 

Another thing special in this set is to avoid mistakes in the build, LEGO incorporates this 1:1 picture in the instructions for you to check your build. How sweet!

This trans clear build is the base of the bottle. They are connected by small parts so it is quite sturdy and hard to remove so try not to make mistake here. 

Building upwards. 

Side view of the bottle. Note those four 1x2 jumpers. They are there for the ship to be mounted inside.

The top view of the finished bottle. 6002 Trans-Clear Panel 6 x 6 x 9 Corner Convex with Curved Top looks nice as the top part of the bottle. This part is not new but quite rare as it appears in only four sets including this 21313 Ship in a Bottle. 

I'm so in love with the bottle. 

The built of the base starting from this brown skeleton. This is a very interesting build as to make the compass look like a bowl, the print of the 44375bpb09 Trans-Clear Dish 6 x 6 Inverted (Radar) - Solid Studs with Vintage Compass Pattern is at the 'wrong' side of the dish quote @makoy. So the studs of this dish are actually at the bottom of the dish. LEGO brilliantly put the yellow 2x2 tiles on two sides of the round plate and invert them like in the picture. Then the build was locked in place using the white 1x4 tile and later covered by the brown plate with quarter circle. I love this unconventional legal build. 

Masterpiece! This compass is not functional but that gold arrow really add up to the design of the build! This is the part where I'm sold. Turns out the base is even nicer than the bottle itself! The globes are very nice addition to the sides of the base and that arches fitted the bottle perfectly. The word Leviathan is also a very nice print where it carries the meaning of a very large aquatic creature. Any idea why?

Turns out that I need to be very careful while 'opening' the bottle to put the ship inside. As you can see here, the top of the mast is actually very close to the 'glass' of the bottle. Extra care is needed to put the ship in and close the top panels. 

Mesmerizing. That compass lies under the bottle became the 'inner' beauty of the set. 

The ship is a tight fit in the bottle. You will break the mast trying to push the bar in the plate inside the body of the ship so be extra careful on that.

A very nice display set. I really love this very much.

Review summary

Playability: -/10 - I think it is quite unfair to put this point into consideration in this set. So I'm not counting this in the overall point. You might break something playing with this set. 
Design / Building Experience: 10/10 - The design is very nice and subtle as a LEGO set. 
Minifigures:  -/10 - No minifigure but I would love a pirate nanofigure in the deck of the ship. 
Price / Value for money: 9/10 - RM300+ for a set without minifigure. I say the price is for the design of the bottle and the compass. 
Overall: 9.5/10 - This is a set where non LEGO fan will also like it. My father thought it was a real bottle of wine when I put it on the dinner table! 

Thanks for reading! I hope you like this review. Do share your thoughts in the comments below! 

My reviews in Eurobricks.

1. Review: 76060 Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum
2. Review: 60134 Fun in the park - City People Pack
3. Review: 70911 The Penguin™ Arctic Roller
4. Review: 70818 Double-Decker Couch
5. REVIEW: LEGO 76051 SUPER HERO AIRPORT BATTLE
6. REVIEW: Short comparison of various sized Antman.
7. Review: 9469 Gandalf Arrives
8. Review: 31015 Emerald Express & 31054 Blue Express
9. Review: 79018 The Lonely Mountain
10. Review: 9474 The Battle of Helm's Deep
11. Review: 21029 The Buckingham Palace
12. [Review] 30611 R2-D2 Polybag
13. Review: 9473 The Mines of Moria
14. Review: 41103 Pop Star Recording Studio
15. Review of City of Wonders Gift Sets in Malaysia.
16. Review: 75030 Millennium Falcon
17. Review of 76084 The Ultimate Battle for Asgard and 76088 Thor vs Hulk: Arena Clash
18. Review of 76099 Rhino Face-Off by the Mine and 76100 Royal Talon Fighter Attack.
19. Review of 76031 The Hulk Buster Smash and 76104 The Hulkbuster Smash Up
20. Review: 75230 Porg
21. [REVIEW] 5005254 - Harry Potter Minifigures (Bricktober 2018)
22. [REVIEW] 5005255 - Jurassic World Minifigures (Bricktober 2018)
23. [REVIEW] 5005257 - NINJAGO Minifigures (Bricktober 2018)
24. [REVIEW] 5005256 - Marvel Infinity War Minifigures (Bricktober 2018)
25. Review: 76105 The Hulkbuster: Ultron Edition
26. Review: 70841 Benny's Space Squad
27. Review of 76039 Ant-man Final Battle and 76109 Quantum Realm Explorers
28. Review: 79003 An Unexpected Gathering
29. The Fellowship of the Ring Collection.
30. Review: 30452 Iron Man and Dum-E Polybag
31. [REVIEW] 76048 Iron Skull Sub Attack
32. [REVIEW] 40343 Spider-Man and the Museum Break-In
33. [REVIEW] Four SDCC minifigures
34. [REVIEW] 76144 Avengers Hulk Helicopter Rescue
    

Masterfully reviewed. Right on the money my friend. I have been reviewing your reviews as we bounce each other ideas and workflow, etc. This review just shows how much effort you put into your craft.  I don't even know if most people appreciate how much effort goes into this. I know it is much easier to watch videos but I always have a place for reading reviews in a leisurely pace specially when pictures are so crisps and well-lit. 

This review makes me open my set right now and build it. 

Cheers!

Thank you for creating this wonderful review, @kaelthas! 

I have shared it on the Classic Pirates social media.

 

This background installation is amazingly right on. Also very high quality photos, this is just a next level for written reviews.

4 hours ago, makoy said:

Masterfully reviewed. Right on the money my friend. I have been reviewing your reviews as we bounce each other ideas and workflow, etc. This review just shows how much effort you put into your craft.  I don't even know if most people appreciate how much effort goes into this. I know it is much easier to watch videos but I always have a place for reading reviews in a leisurely pace specially when pictures are so crisps and well-lit. 

This review makes me open my set right now and build it. 

Cheers!

Thanks for the kind words and all the teachings @makoy. 

1 hour ago, Mister Phes said:

Thank you for creating this wonderful review, @kaelthas! 

I have shared it on the Classic Pirates social media.

 

I’m honoured! Thank you so much @Mister Phes!

13 minutes ago, Medzomorak said:

This background installation is amazingly right on. Also very high quality photos, this is just a next level for written reviews.

Thank you @Medzomorak! I hope the dried leaves and rocks didn’t distract much attention from the wonderful set. Haha

Wow. These images are mind blowing! I have standing this lovely set right next to me but your images make me want to buy another! 

Very well placed vignette and our images have a nice Bokeh. High quality I would say.

There was definitely going much effort into this review. 

The ship in a Bottle is one of my favorite Ideas Sets. It has just an overall beautiful look and nice colors in it. I think if you did not buy this one you should or you will definitely regret it. 

7 hours ago, Robin_IV said:

Wow. These images are mind blowing! I have standing this lovely set right next to me but your images make me want to buy another! 

Very well placed vignette and our images have a nice Bokeh. High quality I would say.

There was definitely going much effort into this review. 

The ship in a Bottle is one of my favorite Ideas Sets. It has just an overall beautiful look and nice colors in it. I think if you did not buy this one you should or you will definitely regret it. 

Thanks for the kind words! I regretted not buying it when it was on sale last year. Then my sister bought it for me by surprise last few weeks and tada! Very good idea having multiples displaying one at home, one in the office.

Great Review, Your pictures are spot on, Love this set! by seeing these picturesd i love it even more!

Greetings!

One of the best photography I have seen in any pictorial review! It could very well be the best set of pictures of this set ever taken... The timing is a bit weird tho, having the set just retired not too long ago :)

4 hours ago, carebear said:

Great Review, Your pictures are spot on, Love this set! by seeing these picturesd i love it even more!

Greetings!

Thanks @carebear! Glad that you like the photos! 
 

 

21 minutes ago, Kristof said:

One of the best photography I have seen in any pictorial review! It could very well be the best set of pictures of this set ever taken... The timing is a bit weird tho, having the set just retired not too long ago :)

Thank you @Kristof! Trust me. The timing is not intentional. My sister bought it for me recently and I just reviewed it straight away! Omg it just retired last year. Lucky me getting it already!

Thank you for a fantastic review of a fantastic set 

I would love for you to do more pirate related reviews in a hopefully pirate-set-enriched future 

Couldn't care less about the set, but I am grateful for the parts it added.

10 hours ago, Kolonialbeamter said:

Thank you for a fantastic review of a fantastic set 

I would love for you to do more pirate related reviews in a hopefully pirate-set-enriched future 

Thanks for the kind words! I think we will be having a fully brick built (including the sails) ship coming. Hopefully, I have the chance to own it then I will definitely review it. 

6 hours ago, SteamSewnEmpire said:

Couldn't care less about the set, but I am grateful for the parts it added.

Yes, those trans clear parts and that printed compass!

Thank you for preparing this review, @kaelthas. I thought this set looked a bit iffy to start with but you've shown that it's really quite impressive.

10 hours ago, jimmynick said:

Thank you for preparing this review, @kaelthas. I thought this set looked a bit iffy to start with but you've shown that it's really quite impressive.

My pleasure @jimmynick, thank you! It is an impressive set given the realistic design of the bottle and the details on the compass and the base!

On 2/11/2020 at 3:57 AM, jimmynick said:

Thank you for preparing this review, @kaelthas. I thought this set looked a bit iffy to start with but you've shown that it's really quite impressive.

I can tell you, I have it and loved it. It placed in a nice spot, and everyone like to spent some to time to explore it

I've had this set for almost a year without bothering to build it, but this absolutely fantastic review is making me want to now.

On 3/4/2020 at 11:34 PM, Mornicala said:

I can tell you, I have it and loved it. It placed in a nice spot, and everyone like to spent some to time to explore it

New attraction spot. Haha  Same here. 

On 3/5/2020 at 2:56 PM, Hive said:

I've had this set for almost a year without bothering to build it, but this absolutely fantastic review is making me want to now.

Thanks! You really should build it and display it somewhere. The box is a great background too if put behind the model. 

Sorry for posting so late, but WOW! Those pics are amazing. I can't stop looking at them.

On 4/17/2020 at 7:06 PM, Jim said:

Sorry for posting so late, but WOW! Those pics are amazing. I can't stop looking at them.

Thanks @Jim! This is a great compliment and motivation for me!