LEGO Shuttle Expedition 10231

I long ago outgrew Lego's though they played a huge part of my childhood. So I was really excited to order the Shuttle Expedition set that I plan on displaying in my soon-to-be born child's room. I'm happy to say that after all these years Lego's are still a satisfying activity and a lot of fun. This set consists of 1230 pieces spread out over about a dozen plastic bags. Pieces range in size from miniscule clear window wedge-shapes and single pieces of the heat-shield all the way to large sections of the solid rocket boosters and liquid fuel tank. I grew up with NASA's STS program and vividly remember watching launch after launch as the decades passed. I remember the day in Kindergarten when we assembled to watch the launch of STS-51 (January 28 1986) and watched in confusion as the Challenger disintegrated shortly after launch. The STS program played such a large role in my childhood and really served as an inspiration for what mankind can do. In getting this set I hope to pass a little bit of the awe and inspiration to my child even if this is just a toy it represents much, much more. Assembling this set is a task that my wife and I worked on over about a week. There are two instruction manuals with about 60-pages apiece that must be followed. Assembly is intricate and interesting in that you start at a base layer and slowly build up upon that. The shuttle is the first (and most impressive) piece to be built followed by the solid-rocket boosters and finally the distinctive burnt-orange liquid fuel tank. The shuttle is also the most intricate part of the entire set and features a fully functional front and rear landing gear assembly that retracts and deploys. The landing gear is surprisingly solid (you'll assemble it of course) and more than up to the task of holding the weight of the set. The cargo bay doors also fully retract to reveal the cargo area complete with the shuttle's famous robotic arm and a satellite to deploy. The arm is also very sturdy and articulates in all directions and again, sturdy enough to hold the weight of the satellite. The entire set rests on a smallish launch pad that is really the only disappointing aspect of this set. A bit more detail and realism here would've made this set absolutely top-notch. As is the set rests securely on the specially designed base. I'm planning on suspending this set from the ceiling using fishing line or something similar so I won't have to use the base but it is a bit sparse. The set comes complete with 3 Lego men/women. One ground grew vehicle and as I stated before a satellite for the shuttle's cargo bay. I'm looking forward to not just displaying this set and using it as a teaching tool for my child but also as something that we can disassemble and reassemble over and over again. Very much recommended! Read more

My 11 year old son and I are huge fans of Lego and Mega Bloks. I've been a space enthusiast my whole life, so I really enjoyed this set. Assembly wasn't difficult, but the wings are a bit thinner than I had expected. Still pretty sturdy though. The only real complaint I'd have for this set is the booster rockets - they're held by three pins on each side, so they're not on there very tight, and wiggle loosely. The landing gear is spring loaded so the gear comes down and is held by an overcentered pivot point. They raise and lower easily, the front with a small pivoting knob on both sides, and the rear is just done by pushing from above the wing to get them down, then pulling them fully extended. Just make sure the front whee, which can pivot side to side since it's the nose wheel and needs to move for "steering", is in the right position when you rotate it back up into the retracted position. Other than the booster rockets, everything else holds pretty solidly. I really love how it looks form a distance, the shuttle mounted on the external tank, in the stand. This is one of my favorites for how insanely good it just LOOKS sitting on display. I got it before the pricing went through the roof, so if you get this at a price you are willing to pay, you'll definitely love it. Read more

Well, I bought this because I loved Legos as a kid & have been sick and grumpy all week. I was as excited as Christmas morning when I opened it up on Saturday morning; the box was huge, bigger than it looked in the Lego store at the mall. Inside the pieces were distributed between a large number of stiff, crinkly clear plastic bags. I dumped a few of the smaller bags into some bins (I'm way more organized than when I was little), left the larger bags closed until I needed something out of them, and started building. Hours passed. This set has probably three times the pieces of the most complex set I'd built before, something like the Blacktron Alpha Centauri Outpost, and nearly five times the pieces of my favorite set of all time, the amazing Blacktron Aerial Intruder. Saturday ended and I was halfway done! The next morning I finished the orbiter, external tank, and baseplate/stand. My older sister built the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters, and then we assembled the components into the launch stack. It was a lot more work than I expected, several evenings' worth for a patient teenager who also has homework and such. The finished product is beautiful and, well, accurate enough to the real shuttle. It's a satisfying build, and though I expect a few bits and pieces will break off if I ever try to play with it (particularly the somewhat flimsy vertical tail), hunting down scattered pieces and reattaching them is part of the fun. Just like the real space shuttles, this model isn't headed into orbit. I work in a physics department, and I intend to display it in my office to show my love of space travel, space technology, and the complex and ambitous story of human attempts to engineer reusable things. Read more