I Wish Lego’s Beautifully Detailed Moon Landing Set Also Included More Accurate Looking Astronauts

I Wish Lego’s Beautifully Detailed Moon Landing Set Also Included More Accurate Looking Astronauts

July marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission which successfully landed two astronauts on the moon, and Lego is one of countless companies hoping to cash in on the accomplishment with a new 1,087-piece set that recreates the Lunar Lander with an impressive amount of detailing. But I’m a little disappointed the included Lego minifigures look like astronauts transplanted from a futuristic sci-fi movie.

Officially available starting June 1 for $144, the set includes the Apollo 11 Eagle lunar module with detachable ascent and descent stages so you can recreate the historic mission again and again. But for those times when you’re not procrastinating at work, the set also serves as a desk-friendly collectible allowing you to perch and display the lunar lander on an included replica of the moon’s surface—complete with craters, footprints, and a US flag.

There’s a respectable level of detail here for what is technically a children’s building toy, and Lego has even gone to the trouble of creating special gold versions of several parts so that the Lunar Lander set looks as accurate as possible. You won’t be fooling anyone if you try to use the model to snap fake moon landing photos, but for $144 it also doesn’t require you to break out the hobby knives, glue, or paint.

What’s disappointing, however, are the tiny spacesuits worn by the set’s astronaut minifigures. They’re the same spacesuit helmets used in other Lego sets, including a series of futuristic Mars-based playsets also released today. The included Apollo 11 minifigures are slightly different, but the set would have felt even more authentic had Lego gone the extra mile and created custom minifigure astronauts with spacesuits that more closely resembled what the real Apollo-era astronauts wore.

The company churns out hundreds of new minifigures every year across its various sets and collectible series, so a retro spacesuit doesn’t seem like too egregious a request.


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