My LEGO 2022 review: my tops and my flops

Today we take a quick look back at a year 2022 which will have been very rich in products targeting in a totally uninhibited and assumed way an adult clientele who can afford plastic toys. Like each of you, I have been seduced, enthusiastic, annoyed or disappointed by some of these products, but tastes and colors are not to be discussed and the sets that I consider to be successful or unsuccessful will probably not be so for everyone.

The set that I remember this year is the reference LEGO ICONS 10302 Optimus Prime (179.99 €), an almost affordable box which really caused a big whiff of nostalgia in me and which highlights all the know-how of the manufacturer.

The construction is really transformable without having to go through improbable techniques or an endless and tiresome learning phase and the product keeps all its promises in my opinion with a very acceptable finish and satisfactory playability for an adult fan who simply wants to find the essence of this license in this derivative product. I really found the toy of my childhood, the contract is fulfilled.

LEGO markets many licensed products, but a large number of them are content to lazily surf on the popularity of the universe concerned without really bringing any added value linked to the extended possibilities of the LEGO concept itself beyond the 'assembly. In my opinion, this is not the case here, and it is therefore my favorite product of the year 2022.

The LEGO ICONS set 10497 Galaxy Explorer (99.99 €) also deserves the honors of my top and yet it is a product on a theme about which I feel no particular nostalgia. This product has been marketed to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the brand and pay tribute to a universe that many adults today knew during their young years and, even if this range does not evoke anything particular in I welcome LEGO's desire to make a successful product accessible to as many people as possible and thus invite a large number of fans to the party.

Sold for a hundred euros, this emblematic vessel with a vintage look but which benefits from modern construction techniques is in principle within the reach of all those who do not have an excessive LEGO budget but who still wish to immerse themselves in the space of a few hours in their childhood memories. Too bad LEGO did not choose to decline its other anniversary product, the LEGO Icons set 10305 Lion Knights'Castle (399.99 €) in a similar format and price range so that fans of the Castle universe are also invited without having to pay several hundred euros.

The LEGO Marvel set 76218 Sanctum Sanctorum (€249.99) also ends up in my 2022 top. young public passionate about superheroes and concerned about accumulating figurines.

The adult fan that I am finds here a dense and interesting construction challenge with a construction that has the luxury of being the ideal complement for all those who love the format Structure very popular at LEGO. I don't line up restaurants, bookstores and jazz clubs, but this Sanctum Sanctorum allowed me to take advantage of all that LEGO knows how to do in terms of detailed buildings while integrating various and varied references to a universe that seduced. The crossover is of quality, so this product deserved to be mentioned because LEGO was able to put some of its abilities at the service of a universe usually treated with much less respect.

The LEGO Star Wars range has both thrilled and disappointed me this year with two examples of which one is a success story and the other a spin-off product of shame. The LEGO Star Wars set 75331 The Mandalorian Razor Crest (599.99 €) embodies in my eyes what all products in the universe Ultimate Collector Series should be: finished and detailed toys, offering an entertaining building experience and meeting the price requirements of the manufacturer. In my opinion, this is the case with this reproduction of the Razor Crest, which brings a little freshness to a range that still purrs a lot.

At the other end of the spectrum, I can't resist mentioning the set 75334 Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Vader, a small box that didn't even give me any for my 50 € with a distressingly sad content that betrays the desire to fill in a tariff box and surf on the popularity of the subject concerned without making any particular effort. This is just one example among many others, but it is emblematic of what I call the spin of license until more thirsty. No matter how hard I try to see the bright side of things, at €50 it's difficult.

My 2022 flop is the LEGO Ideas set 21337 Soccer table (249.99 €). I haven't changed my mind since my review posted a few months ago, this product is the symbol of broken promises and LEGO's ability to appropriate a product to try to work on its image by disappointing many potential customers who do not find the original idea in the official product.

I wanted a foosball table, I was probably a little naive because I got an uninteresting micro-toy flanked by a slew of minifigs that didn't add anything to the original concept. LEGO has made the passage of this botched product a tool to promote its approach to inclusiveness, it is laudable in absolute terms but it was not the subject, at least not during the selection of the basic idea that was to serve as a reference for the official product.

Basically, the proposed miniature table football is simply ridiculous, it has no relation to what it tries to represent and which was nevertheless at the center of the initial idea and I still wonder who can " have fun" with this $250 thing. Maybe Thierry Henry.

The LEGO Ideas set 21332 The Globe (229.99 €) is also a disappointment for me. I find it old-fashioned and rude, it's very personal, and there was probably better to do from the original idea. Products lifestyle can seduce me but they still have to be sufficiently accomplished for me to agree to pay the asking price.

I can understand the desire to deliver a globe with a "vintage" finish, but in my opinion the designer had a little trouble finding the right balance to keep the spirit of the original idea without offering a dated product to very rough finish. Not everything deserves to be put through a LEGO mill, or it takes a lot of talent to convince me that a particular object gains something from it, as is the case, for example, with the typewriter in the set LEGO Ideas 21327 Typewriter or the two 2023 references of the Botonic Collection announced a few days ago.

Finally, the last big disappointment of 2022 for me is embodied by the LEGO Marvel set 76210 Hulkbuster (€549.99). Once again, it's not so much the product itself that disappoints me as the fact of having discovered as soon as it was announced that my imagination had gone too far and that I was going to have to settle for a product that was too dear to the Japanese robot look that no longer has much to do with the reference armor. This is the daily lot of LEGO fans: the first leaks that reveal the title of upcoming products let us imagine a lot of possible things and the first visuals always put us off a bit.

For lack of anything better, many fans will find their account and some may even cry genius, but I expected something more aesthetically successful, especially at this price. This product leaves me with the feeling that LEGO does not always make the necessary efforts and relies both on the indulgence of its loyal customers and on the power of the licenses concerned to make the pill go more easily. I am often like many of us the ideal victim of these marketing manipulations, but not at 550 € the joke which consists in putting an Iron Man doll in a samurai armor.

As you will have understood, the current profusion of sets intended for adult customers requires making choices and mine are more and more often guided by both form and content. I remain an assiduous fan of the LEGO universe but I have to raise my standards a little more each year to only offer myself products that appeal to me because of what they really have to offer. A few bricks and a pretty box are no longer enough, even if there are still several ranges of which I buy almost all the products without discernment (the collection...), and when it comes to digging into other universes I want to at least get my money's worth and be able to tell myself that the LEGO-style interpretation of the subject concerned was ultimately a good idea.

I repeat like every year: there will be as many opinions as fans and the LEGO offer was so varied this year that everyone will have found at least one product considered to tick all the boxes. My selection of successful or unsuccessful products is therefore far from being exhaustive, I mainly base myself on the impressions that these different sets leave me several months after their marketing. Other sets will have left me quite simply indifferent, it does not matter, they will necessarily have found their audience among other fans who will have been sensitive to the proposal.

Do not hesitate to mention your favorite sets of 2022 in the comments, also indicate those which will have left you hungry, there was plenty to do last year and it is finally the good news: the offer proposed by LEGO for its adult clientele has never been so varied, everyone finds something to enjoy even on a limited budget.