Today we take a quick tour of the content of the LEGO ICONS set 11389 Project Hail Mary, a box of 830 pieces currently available for pre-order at the public price of €109,99 on the official online store and which will be available on March 1, 2026.
As you know from the product announcement, this box is based on the film Project Hail Mary (Last Chance Project) whose theatrical release is scheduled for March 20, 2026. The film itself is an adaptation of the bestselling novel of the same name written by Andy Weir and published in 2021.
Beyond the film reference, this set directly targets fans of space exploration, real or fictional, and the product will allow them to have some fun. The micro-scale model of the film's spaceship is only about thirty centimeters tall, but it benefits from an integrated feature that allows, via the crank located at the front of the base, to "put the crew module into orbit and simulate the film's gravity system."
And it's rather well executed, even if the mechanism does slightly clutter the visual presentation of the ship, which seems a bit lost amidst the rest of the set. In short, you turn the crank one way to rotate the ship and the other to slide the crew compartment out of the booster beam and tilt it 90 degrees. Why not, if it amuses some fans.
Unsurprisingly, the product's functionality relies on a full assortment of elements from the Technic ecosystem. If you're allergic to beams, axles, and other pins, the assembly probably won't be a very entertaining experience, but the promise of being able to play with this ship a little should make it easier to accept. The construction phase of the stand covers 165 of the 242 steps listed in the booklet, with the rest dedicated to assembling the ship. Of the six bags included in the box, four are specifically for the stand and its mechanism.
There are no stickers in this box, all the patterned elements such as the product presentation plate, the Xenonite wall, the patterned parts of the ship and the few accessories in the hands of the two characters are therefore pad-printed.
LEGO gives you the choice of staging here: the supports for installing the Ryland Grace minifigure and the Rocky alien are detachable, as is the Xenonite wall which can be stored under the central upright of the display if you do not want a separate module for the two protagonists.
The Ryland Grace minifigure is nicely printed, and it also reuses the back accessory already seen in 2020 on the Sith Troopers from the LEGO Star Wars set. 75266 Sith Troopers Battle Pack The red helmet shown here is the same one that has been available in the LEGO CITY range for several years. Ryan Gosling's head, with its two faces, is new and will likely be used for many other characters in the future. The Rocky alien is represented here by a few pieces, including one... Dish pad printed.
In short, LEGO offers us here an ultra-simplified model at the chosen scale and somewhat stifled by its own functionality, but the subject matter undoubtedly deserved this opportunity to stage the operation of the ship that will be at the center of the film.
Was it really necessary to go overboard with a plethora of features that inevitably inflate the price to reach the high cost of €110, or to settle for something more modest and discreet with a simple manual function? That will be up to you to decide when the time comes.
As it stands, I think we've ended up with a toy, albeit an elaborate one, rather than a true display model, and everyone will have their own opinion on the designer's approach. You can't fault LEGO for trying to offer something a little more interesting than a simple static model, but the ICONS range is perfectly content with these static objects that are meant to be set up and then forgotten on a shelf.
It remains to be seen whether the film will find its audience and whether this spaceship, loosely based on the novel, will become "iconic" in the eyes of fans. The success of the book on which it is based does not guarantee that the adaptation will fill theaters, nor does Ryan Gosling's presence. If the film flops, the subsequent clearance sale will allow fans to quickly acquire this set for less than its retail price.
One might also wonder why LEGO is offering us in the ICONS range a product that is based only on a film that has not yet been released; this choice may seem a little pretentious, but it is undoubtedly a derivative product "imposed" by Sony Pictures in exchange for other subjects to be addressed later.
Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at March 12, 2026 at 23:59 p.m. Simply post a comment below the article to participate.
Update : The winner was drawn and notified by email, his nickname is indicated below.
| sayanel31 - Comment posted the 25/02/2026 at 16:09 |