Last week I got an email from LEGO asking if I was an Original.
You most probably got the same.
We all got it.
How original is that.
Yet I was intrigued.
A beautiful crafted LEGO minifigure.
Five-time the size of the real deal.
An exclusive, handcrafted oak minifigure, challenging to unleash my creativity.
An exclusive, handcrafted red oak minifigure
I was hooked.
And I clicked the link, and swiped my credit card.
I am after all a fan of all things LEGO, and this exclusive Original begged to come over to my place. The checkout page told me I was limited to two pieces max. While I was tempted to buy two, the pretty steep price point (yes, pretty steep) made me think twice and I only bought one.
On Friday I got a notification a package was waiting for me.
I got that creative feeling that this would be fun, and my mind drifted away to all the things I could do this weekend with my new minifigure in red wood oak.
Unboxing
Take it out into town.
Have a portrait photoshoot with my new camera (more on that later).
Get some creative street photography with my new friend.
I could not wait with unboxing it.
Unboxing The Buzz The Original
A little bit disappointed …
And that is where the disappointment started.
This little dude is completely not poseable.
A minifigure whose arms can’t move.
Whose legs are frozen in time.
One solid block of LEGO wood.
A sustainable block of wood as the FSC stamp stands for.
And a nice little visit card for roomcopenhagen.com which I was surprised to find here.
I would have hoped to get a unique serial number, since every piece is handcrafted, but I doubt my (H)/0001 is a real serial.
A beautifully crafted dead weight I can have on my desk to hold my Wacom pen.
Now, for 1399 SEK (130 EUR, 144 USD, 0,016 Bitcoin) this is a pretty expensive high-end dead weight. And LEGO advises me to get creative and build the buzz by painting or carving this beautiful dead weight. Now, at 1399 SEK one is not directly inclined to make a disruptive move.
At least I am not, as the object is beautiful on its own.
And so it actually does not invite to be a blank canvas that screams to be sculptured.
While you can see the inspiration may come from the CowParade, at this price point it is very elitish and I am not sure a lot of creatives will buy one to “create the buzz”…
My Buzz
And this is where I think LEGO did not get it all right in this first of its Originals.
Or maybe LEGO tried to get too much in this little minifigure.
- A collector item – yes
- An expensive price point – yes
- Beautifully crafted – yes
- An inspiration to get creative with – maybe
- A blank canvas – no
- Playable – not really
- Poseable – nope
- And did I say – very expensive? Very expensive indeed.
- And not something you give to kids to draw on and make their own art.
I am not saying you should not buy this for an AFOL that is looking for a timeless beautifully carved sculpture to have in their AFOL cave. But be aware of the limitations. This is not really a toy for kids to get creative with, and for us toy photographers it is a very static model, to say the least.
Looking for my Geppetto
So, here I am.
A little bit disappointed…
And looking for a carpenter that can make me a real poseable minifigure out of this one. With moveable legs and arms. My Gepetto…
Anyone around that knows someone that could help me out?
Taking plastic places.
Exploring my inner child and following Me2’s wanderlust into untold stories for generations to come.
100% Stuck In Plastic.
I almost bit; as I also thought it would move as a minifigure. Knowing it is just a solid block of wood makes me think Lego missed a big opportunity to create something truly entirely different yet still creatively Lego…
Stamped made in Vietnam just makes me think these are made by child laborers… as 30% of the Vietnamese labor force is the age of 6-17. I can guarantee they won’t be buying one of these at that high of a price…
I share the same concerns, Joe. They could have made sooo much more out of it, and at this price point it would be awesome to see a behind the scene of LEGO doing the right thing in Vietnam and this being truly a creative workshop and not child labor or a sweatshop as some others said on IG.
It is still a beautiful piece of wood and I hope this triggers all the right discussions about det bedste er ikke for godt end to end
It’s a nice piece of wood. And that’s the problem for moving parts. With plastic, you have some tolerance for the adjustment that will allow a rotation of the arms and legs. With wood, the tolerance is much more reduced, and if you’re in the sides parts of your tolerance range, either you have no possible move, as the friction is far too high, or you have no grip at all and you figurine is condemned to stay seating with the arms pointing to the ground. To me, it was a fail from the start, as most of AFOLs were… Read more »
It was also a fail for me from the start. But not because it’s not posable, but because of the price. I loved it as soon as I saw the picture, but then when I saw the price it went to “Hmmmmm… nope, I’ll keep my money for real LEGO”
Yes, the price is… not my standards for this. It’s a “pleasure” to spend 120€ with LEGO, but not for something that will only be in my room for decoration purpose.
It would´ve been even nicer if it had wooden hands as well. Yes, I know, friction or clutch power wouldn´t have had a chance, not even thinking of the high risk of hands breaking due to the exceptionally thin material. Then again, a highly esthetical wooden LEGO minifigure would just have looked like a Kay Bojesen copy. Agreed. Nice idea, but the problem began when it was thought of being transformed into real life.