Review : LEGO Creator Expert 10272 Old Trafford - Manchester United

As promised, today I'm giving you some very personal thoughts on the LEGO Creator Expert set. 10272 Old Trafford - Manchester United (3898 pieces - 269.99 € / 299.00 CHF). You will not be surprised to learn that my opinion on this big box which allows to reproduce the Mancunian stadium is ... a little mixed.

First of all, you have to put the set in its context: it is above all a product intended for Manchester United fans who may have some affinities with LEGOs. For many fans of the English team, Old Trafford is a mythical stadium, as are the Stade Vélodrome for fans of the Olympique de Marseille, Le Parc des Princes for fans of Paris Saint-Germain or Geoffroy-Guichard for Saint-Étienne fans. LEGO did not have much choice of subject anyway, it was the stadium or a series of minifigs with the effigy of the players. Bad luck for those who love the team but not to the point of spending 270 €, it fell on the stadium.

That being said, I think this box deserves its belonging to the LEGO Creator Expert range and its look as a set from the Architecture range with a packaging that takes all the codes or almost. The finish of this 3898-piece model is far from exemplary at all levels but the pleasure of construction is often there over the ten hours required to assemble the set.

Where I remain more reserved, it is on the presence of a huge sheet of stickers which we know in advance that they will not necessarily contribute to making this product a high-end exhibition model with the finish irreproachable. To put it simply, you will understand that everything that is not on the sheet of stickers of which you will find a scan below is therefore pad printed.

You have already been able to discover the stadium from every angle thanks to the official visuals gallery provided by LEGO, but to know what this model really offers in terms of construction, it is especially necessary to be interested in what is behind the relatively convincing appearance of the product. And I must say that even if I expected a few repetitive steps which are well in place, the product remains very interesting to assemble thanks to the presence of many techniques largely of the level of what one would expect from a product of the Creator Expert range. We can also consider that the model is worthy of finding its place within the LEGO Architecture range: We find here the usual techniques of extreme miniaturization of the range.

Each element of the stadium is based on an element-based structure Technic which brings together the five subsets of the set: the lawn and the four stands. This breakdown of the model is perfect for facilitating storage or moving from one shelf to another without disassembling everything, and allowing a real discovery of the interior of the premises. With hindsight, I am more and more convinced that the exterior of the stadium is frankly successful while the interior is marred by somewhat hazardous "creative" choices, as if two designers had each worked on their own. before gathering their solutions.

The exterior facades of the stadium are very faithful to the reference construction and the different structures that maintain the roofs of the stands, although simplified on the LEGO version, really give an illusion. The most perfectionists will take the time to orient the various elements of the metal structure that covers the roof to hide the injection points and the holes visible on the side of the various clips.

No detail has been forgotten around the enclosure, with the identification panels of each stand, the various statues that pay tribute to important figures in the history of the club, the micro-bus that transports the players and even the clock stopped at the time of the take-off crash on February 6, 1958, of flight 609 which was carrying the team returning from a European Cup match in Belgrade.

Everything is there and fans who know the place because they had the opportunity to go there to attend a meeting should find what they are looking for. Those who only watch the games on television may never have seen the outside of the stadium and some references may escape them. The instruction booklet being richly documented, it will provide them with some answers.

Inside the stadium, the grass of the field is content with a few large pad-printed plates with white lines with a somewhat rough alignment. Those who hoped for a complex tile to assemble will be at their expense but the solution used here seems reasonable to me because of the presence of the white lines.

The stands are represented by large alignments of striated red pieces that would create an illusion if the stickers to stick on were matched. The solution used by the designer to symbolize the rows of seats is visually convincing but the black lines of the stickers are in my opinion much too thick and really too dark to blend in perfectly with the red background. I suspect the graphic designer in charge of the sticker design imagined that the stripes of the red pieces would produce a shadow effect and tried to reproduce this effect on the stickers, but it is too pronounced.

Another detail that affects the coherence of the interior of the stadium, the corner stands are made up mostly of smooth parts and are not perfectly adjusted with the elements they rub shoulders with. The construction hesitates between a triangle with stepped edges and large rounded pieces that break the profile of these stands. The stickers to stick on some of these bends do not help.

A note about the transparent parts used on the roofs of the stands, including the new quadrant: They are thrown into the bags in the middle of the rest of the inventory and, as too often, several of them are scratched when unpacking due to the friction of the parts between them during the movements of the bags inside the box. Do not hesitate to contact customer service to obtain the replacement of these damaged parts, at 270 € a box, we are entitled to hope for an irreproachable product.

We do not escape the color differences in this box and the large flat roofs reveal different shades of white depending on the room. We go from creamy white to beige white and depending on the lighting, the rendering is a little irregular.

This stadium is a pure exhibition product that we will handle from time to time to show all the details to a passing friend. The modularity of the product is perfect for this type of exercise, but one should not hope too much to keep the construction in perfect condition for many years. Even though LEGO has long since changed the recipe for plastic used for parts by removing tetrabromobisphenol-A, a flame retardant that caused UV-exposed items to prematurely yellow and is now prohibited for use, roofs will inevitably tarnish eventually. and the stickers of the stands suffer from prolonged exposure.

In short, I know that Manchester United and LEGO fans will be content with this meeting between two universes that fascinate them and will be happy to indulge with the few finishing details which in my opinion spoil the product a little, but I remain convinced that the stands deserved better than this big handful of ill-assorted stickers and these somewhat rough finishes. On the other hand, I am pleasantly surprised by the exterior appearance of the place and by the finish of the enclosure roof with the different combinations of parts that embody the elements of the metal structure.

As this is an empty stadium, without players or audience, I think that LEGO could have thrown in the box a display with two or three players and a ball, just to give a little consistency to the product and to make pleasure to the fans.

Ah, man, this display exists and is actually currently offered with the product to members of the VIP program. Or rather, it was offered, at the time of this writing, it is already out of stock on the official online store ...

Note: The set presented here, supplied by LEGO, is as usual in play. Deadline fixed at 27th January 2020 next at 23pm.

Update : The winner was drawn and was notified by email, his nickname is indicated below. Without a response from him to my request for contact details within 5 days, a new winner will be drawn.