My LEGO 2021 review: my tops and my flops

Quick look back on the year 2021, a year rich in large sets intended for an adult clientele, with a manufacturer who has really come out of the woods by fully assuming its strategy in terms of detailed and often very expensive exhibition products that will end their career. on the shelves of fans of interior decoration a little geek, lifestyle and in tune with the times.

As far as I'm concerned, without even hesitation, I award the mention of the best product of 2021 to the LEGO Harry Potter set. 76391 Hogwarts Icons Collector's Edition (249.99 €), a box which reconciled me a little with a range for which I am not really enthusiastic. The product seems to me to be up to what a fan who does not want to burden himself with a Hogwarts model can exhibit without too much invasion of his interior while proudly displaying his passion for the saga. The set, despite some aesthetic flaws and shortcuts, is in my opinion a very good summary of what the saga has to offer in terms of derivative products and an excellent compromise when it comes to finding a place for it.

On the second step of my podium, I place the LEGO Marvel set 76193 The Guardians' Ship (159.99 €), a box which finally proves to us that LEGO can put all its know-how at the service of a range which is too often content to offer us constructions of no great interest to sell us minifigs. The result is in my opinion worthy of the best UCS in the LEGO Star Wars range and this Benatar perched on its display really looks great.

I hesitated for a long time with the construction of the LEGO Marvel set 76178 Daily Bugle (299.99 €) but I finally concluded that the latter is only an extrapolation bordering on the exaggeration of the lazy technique mentioned above and that the construction itself, a little too basic and too gray, is definitely no match for Benatar, despite the 25 minifigs that accompany it.

LEGO DC sets 76240 Batman Batmobile Tumbler (229.99 €) and LEGO Star Wars 75313AT-AT  (799.99 €) share third place on my podium, they hardly deserved better because it is above all a remake for the Tumbler and an inevitable but ultimately not as essential as we could think bulky interpretation of AT-AT. Make no mistake, I am happy to be able to add these two constructions to my collection, but I did not have the few seconds of wonder that the first two in the ranking caused. The AT-AT is the definitive version of the craft that many of us have been waiting for for a few years, but it still didn't measure up to me against the owl and the big orange ship.

The bottom of the ranking is made up of four references marketed this year. It is not, however, a question of denigrating free of charge products which will undoubtedly have found their audience, but in my eyes they are sets which accumulate too many faults to deserve to be considered as truly successful products worthy of the reputation of the manufacturer and its often elitist pricing policy.

The and 10279 Volkswagen T2 Camper Van (159.99 €) does not in my opinion pay the hoped-for homage to the reference vehicle with a too rough design and a fragility which does not help matters. We know that LEGO sometimes has trouble with the characteristic curves of certain vehicles, but the usual excuse "...it's difficult to make round shapes with square pieces ..."is no longer enough.

Glove from the LEGO Marvel set 76191 Infinity Gauntlet (79.99 €) is not totally missed but looking at it well we end up saying to ourselves that it is more the hand of a musketeer than the big glove with rounded shapes seen on the screen, the LEGO set ART 31023 World Map (249.99 €) is actually just a simple bathymetric map, a little ugly and too expensive which is content to delimit the continents in a completely neutral way and without particular indications and the LEGO Technic set 42129 4x4 Mercedes-Benz Zetros Trial Truck (299.99 €) is far from keeping the promises made on the box or the official visuals in terms of mobility. These four products are therefore those that seem to me to be the most disappointing among those marketed in 2021, each for different reasons or grievances. It's subjective but that's how it is, what I consider to be faults is probably sometimes a simple marketing awkwardness or a price positioning that does not stick with the ambitions displayed of the product concerned but these are important elements .

I obviously give a special mention to the LEGO VIDIYO range, which in my eyes is out of the ranks for its incomprehensible concept and its uninteresting interactivity.

Upon arrival, the year 2021 will in any case have been sufficiently rich in products targeting a demanding adult clientele and who are looking for products offering a successful assembly experience or sufficient exposure potential for the result obtained to deserve a place. on a wall or a shelf, there were plenty of opportunities to spend a lot of money.

LEGO fans have been served with reinterpretations or original creations this year and those who only very occasionally buy LEGO products will no doubt have been won over by one or two boxes that celebrate the favorite licenses. As every year, there will be as many opinions as there are fans. You have mine, so I'm just waiting to know which are your favorite 2021 sets or which ones we avoided in the comments.