Lego just launched a giant Apollo Saturn V moon rocket set that comes with 1,969 pieces
Lego Ideas
This summer will be one small step for Lego fans, and one giant leap for nerd-kind.
Lego Ideas is launching a NASA Apollo Saturn V rocket set on June 1, 2017, to help space fans everywhere pull off historic moon missions from the comfort of their own homes.
Like NASA’s storied space program, this kit will come with three separable Saturn V rocket stages, a lunar orbiter, lunar module, crew of three astronauts, and even an American flag for the microfigurines to plant on the moon.
But Lego’s version won’t cost billions upon billions of dollars, gobble up nearly 4.5% of the national budget, or need to be fueled with hundreds of thousands of gallons of highly flammable kerosene and liquid oxygen. Instead, each set of plastic parts will be scaled down 110 times, stand an impressive one-meter (3.28 feet) tall when fully assembled, and sell for $119.
Inside the box: exactly 1,969 pieces — a clever nod to the year of the first moon landing, by the crew of Apollo 11, in July 1969.
Lego Ideas; NASA; Business Insider
An illustration of Lego’s new NASA Apolo Saturn V set.
Lego rated the set for ages 14 and older. This should give parents a good excuse to steal it from their children, lock themselves in a bedroom, and gleefully assemble the space program of their dreams on a carpet.
The concept for this set got its start in August 2014, when users “whatsuptoday” and “saabfan” posted their Saturn V concept to the Lego Ideas community, which lets members create, submit, and vote on new set plans.
Within a year, their project received 10,000 votes from fellow fans of plastic bricks. This triggered an automatic review by a board of Lego set designers, and in June 2016, Lego announced that it would manufacture and sell the set. The company on Friday officially released the product. (As a reward, the two users will get 1% of the product sales and licensing revenue, minus Danish taxes.)
We can’t wait to get our hands on this bad boy, but these photos will have to do until then.
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