After what’s felt like years of waiting, hoping, and speculating, earlier this year, Lego finally confirmed it would be boldly going forward with a Star Trek set that has become the centerpiece of the brick-maker’s annual Thanksgiving celebrations. Can it live up to the hype?
Thankfully, the answer is a resounding yes. Lego’s first foray into Star Trek, the Enterprise-D from The Next Generation, is a fascinating tribute to the legendary series while also being an extremely compelling build experience for diehard Lego fans, packed with fun techniques to maintain Star Trek‘s famously smooth-lined starship design in the world of Lego. io9 recently received a review copy of the Enterprise from Lego, so we’re here to take you inside and see what makes it so good—and why we hope it means it’s the first of many.
How long does it take to build Lego’s Star Trek Enterprise-D set?
Clocking in at 3,600 pieces, the Lego Enterprise-D is a pretty sizeable model, resulting in a replica of the Galaxy-class starship and a sturdy display stand to pose it mid-flight on that measures around 23.5″ from fore to aft and 10.5″ tall (aided by the fact the ship is held at an upwards angle on its stand). While it is a major undertaking, the build is broken into three distinct sections: the secondary hull and the Enterprise‘s nacelles, the stand itself, and then half of the 30 bags in the set are dedicated to the main saucer.
Given the nature of the Enterprise-D’s design, once you get going, there are a lot of similar techniques repeated over and over again, so if you’re a familiar builder, you can go pretty quickly and even duplicate some steps to speed up the process. Overall, though, if you’re taking things leisurely, you can be done in 9-10 hours… or around 12 episodes of Deep Space Nine, if you’re like me and like to put something on while you’re building (sorry TNG fans, but I’d recently just restarted a rewatch and decided to continue that rather than put on a more thematically appropriate bit of background noise!).
How many minifigures are in Lego’s Star Trek Enterprise-D set?
Even though the focus of the set is the ship replica rather than a playset environment, it would be a crime if Lego’s first Trek set didn’t go all in on minifigures. Thankfully, the Enterprise-D comes with nine minifigures to faithfully recreate the bridge crew you know and love: Picard, Riker, Troi, Worf, La Forge, Data, Dr. Crusher, and Wesley Crusher in his famous jumper. Joining them to round out the set is a welcome but slightly oddball choice in Guinan, hostess of the Enterprise lounge Ten Forward, but she, like Wesley, breaks up the sea of similar Starfleet uniforms with some lovely unique elements to recreate her fashionable wardrobe.
Each minifigure comes with an accessory, some more unique than others, even if they’re all appropriate. Wesley gets a very unique accessory in the form of a mini replica of the portable tractor beam generator from “The Naked Now,” as does Riker with his beloved trombone. Picard naturally comes with a teacup, Guinan has a green bottle of something from Ten Forward (it’s never explicitly noted what it is, but it seems like a nod to the Aldebaran whiskey Data offers Scotty in “Relics”), Data gets Spot the cat, and Geordi comes with an engineering kit. Perhaps the least interesting ones are ironically the most typically Star Trek: Worf gets a handheld phaser, which is cleverly constructed with a wedge piece and a handle, at least, while Deanna and Beverly get a PADD and medical tricorder… both of which are just printed 1×2 tiles. Which are fine and probably the best Lego could do at minifigure scale, but just kind of boring.
What is nice is that, in a rare move, the Enterprise-D comes with a little separate stand to put the minifigures on in a row, complete with a cute little Next Generation title card (albeit as a sticker, rather than a printed piece). It’s a nice acquiescence to the fact that the build is more about the display model than the minifigures themselves, but it was still nice that Lego built something more structured to display them on, instead of just leaving them as-is.
Is Lego’s Star Trek Enterprise-D set difficult to build?
Building a Lego model out of a ship like the Enterprise-D is a risky endeavor, given its peculiar shaping and weight distribution, on top of the fact that, well, it’s mostly grey. But Lego puts a lot of interesting techniques in throughout the build to not only effectively capture the curvature and shaping of the Galaxy-class but also to keep your fingers busy and not have things blur into a long series of similar patterns being used to build similar-looking, similar-colored pieces.
There are definitely a few places where more seasoned Lego builders can start duplicating builds to speed up the process: the build of the secondary hull of the Enterprise is split into two halves, for example, before you build the two nacelles that are identical in structure. Once you’ve built the skeleton of the main saucer, you’re then essentially repeating little plate sections of the hull to sandwich over it. While the repeating can be a bit, well, repetitive, there are enough interesting techniques used for experienced builders and enough simple patterning for Trek fans who might be embarking on their first-ever Lego build of this scale.
On top of that, even though the Enterprise-D is a display set rather than a playset, the design team still snuck in a few fun little features and Easter eggs. The aforementioned main saucer section, for example, is secured into place by a little floating shuttlecraft coming in to dock at its aft shuttle bay—which can be removed so you can separate the saucer from the secondary hull to replicate the Galaxy-class’ unique feature. And even though you don’t get to build its iconic bridge, the center of the saucer does hold a little replica of the Enterprise‘s dedication plaque! Even as someone who is on the record on the D being far from my favorite Enterprise design, I couldn’t help but be charmed at just how well Lego managed to bring it faithfully to life.
How much is Lego’s Star Trek Enterprise-D set? Is it worth the price?
Alas, this is going to be the sticking point for a lot of Star Trek fans. At $400, the Enterprise-D may not be quite so eye-watering as some of Lego’s other recent set prices, but it’s still a big ask, and especially difficult considering it’s the first time (and potentially last) the company has tackled Star Trek. You’re definitely getting something that feels worth the price in terms of size and scope, but it’s not hard to wonder if Lego should’ve started out at a smaller scale or with different ideas beyond ship replicas to test the waters and see if Star Trek could become just as enduring a Lego series as Star Wars has, if the alternative was a very pricey one-off.
We don’t know what the future for Lego Star Trek holds beyond the Enterprise-D—this could be the start of a yearly release schedule akin to Lego’s approach to Lord of the Rings, a line that exclusively stays in the upper echelons of adult-focused, high-end (and high-cost) sets. It’s undeniable that as a build experience and as a replica of one of the series’ most famous starships, the Enterprise-D is a Star Trek and Lego fan’s dream: it looks great, it’s a fun, big build, and it’s got a great collection of minifigures that feels complete in the way that, if this is it, at least you got everything you’d want.
But it’s equally undeniable that a lot of Star Trek fans and a lot of Lego fans are going to be put off by Lego’s decision to go big as it did here to justify asking such a high price, in an age where the company’s products feel like they’re only getting pricier and pricier. There’s a lot more value in the Enterprise-D compared to some of 2025’s other big-ticket sets, sure, but $400 is still $400.
If there was some kind of indication from Lego that this wouldn’t be it and that there would be more, smaller-scoped sets, it might be an easier pill to swallow, knowing Trek fans can wait and see what else the company does if they don’t want to throw down this much cash in one go. Even as great a set as it is, it’s a tough sell to anyone but some of the most diehard Star Trek fans without some Ferengi-level justification to your wallet.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Source link
#Legos #Star #Trek #Set #Sign #Great
Post Comment