Review: LEGO House Limited Edition 40502 The Brick Molding Machine

As promised, we quickly tour the contents of the LEGO House set 40502 The Brick Molding Machine, (Limited Edition) a beautiful box of 1205 pieces that will be sold exclusively at the LEGO House Store in Billund from March 4th. It will be necessary to go there and pay 599 DKK or about 80 € to have the pleasure of assembling the reproduction of the machine which sits at the entrance of the LEGO House and which produces the bricks present in the small bags offered to visitors ( ref. 624210). For those wondering why the box bears the number 2, this is the second reference in a series of sets launched last year by the reference 40501 The Wooden Duck.

This souvenir to bring back from a trip to Billund will remain exclusive to the LEGO House and will probably never be offered for purchase through the official online store. I know that some are already imagining that LEGO could re-launch the initiative that had allowed the fastest to buy a copy of the set 21037 LEGO House on the Shop in May 2020, but the reopening to the public of the sanctuary dedicated to the brick being confirmed, there is hardly any chance that LEGO will repeat this operation.

The real injection molding machine visible to visitors to the LEGO House is identical to those installed at the brand's various production sites, the only difference being that the mold used here produces only six classic red 2x4 bricks and that the speed of the manufacturing process has been slowed so as not to produce more bricks than necessary depending on the number of people on site.

Well done to the designer, the reproduction offered is really faithful to the reference machine, down to the smallest detail with, for example, the small red bucket which collects production waste. Some features are integrated into the product, and even if this machine 29 cm long, 15 cm wide and 19 cm high with its presentation support is intended to end its career on a shelf, we can have a little fun with it.

The three side protection panels slide to allow access to the internal mechanics of the machine and a thumbwheel moves the part of the mold containing the six red bricks to the other half. The bricks are not ejected from the mold as on the real machine when the two parts of the mold are separated, but the integration of this function brings a little touch of realism to the product.

The designer insisted on this point and I therefore do the same: this set is also the first to offer doors and frames in Lime (lime) and these parts provided here in five copies should quickly find their way into other boxes. Here we find the color differences that particularly affect this color. Lime, those who have invested in the LEGO Technic set 42115 Lamborghini Sián FKP 37 know what I'm talking about. It's subtle but sufficiently present that the aesthetics of the final model suffer. It can therefore be concluded that despite LEGO's promises to try to solve this problem, no convincing solution has yet been found.

There is only one sticker in this box, it is the one used for the machine control panel screen. The three Tiles reproducing the promotional bags and those specifying that they are the machine installed at the LEGO House are pad printed. The designs of the bags are printed on Tiles nougat color which represent the paper version of the packaging soon to replace the classic polybag.

LEGO does include some information on the evolution of its manufacturing processes in the first pages of the instruction booklet, but I would have liked to know more about how this particular machine works. It's a shame, adding some technical data on the technology used would have made this product a pseudo-educational tool instead of limiting it to the role of a simple souvenir of a visit to Billund. A few inserts over the pages would have been welcome, it will be for another time.

In short, if you ever pass by Billund and this set is still available on the shelves of the LEGO House Store by then, you may be able to bring back this nice derivative as a souvenir. Just kidding, there is a good chance that this set has been sold out for a long time and you will as often have to turn to the aftermarket dealers who will be on site from March 4 to fill the trunk of their car and offer you the thing. at the double or the tripe of its public price to "amortize the displacement". It's up to you to see if this investment is justified.

Note: The set presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at March 15, 2021 next at 23pm. "The" I try, I participate "are automatically deleted, make an effort.

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.