Review : LEGO Ideas 21323 Grand Piano

Today we quickly go around another set "for stressed adult clients"of the moment: the LEGO Ideas reference 21323 Grand Piano with its 3662 pieces and its public price of 349.99 €.

I believe that we must immediately evacuate the main problem of the set to be comfortable thereafter and not to give the impression of drowning a troublesome detail in the rest of the test: Contrary to what is indicated at the whole start of official product description (... Beautiful ... and you can really play it ...), you can't play the piano with this piano. In defense for LEGO, one finds elsewhere the mention "... Pretend to play by selecting a melody already recorded ..."which helps calm the most optimistic.

I know many overwhelmingly enthusiastic fans reacted a bit quickly to the product announcement by shouting at the creative genius about this box, only to realize that the instrument isn't really functional. The presence of an engine and a few moving parts does not make it a piano on which you can play your own compositions. This is a simple music box, which does not emit any sound without the presence of a smartphone.

If I take the trouble to tell you all this at the beginning of the article, it's because I know that others will only make one line at the end of their "review", after having praised a product who certainly has qualities but who is not what many imagined he would be.

Now that we agree that this piano is just a beautiful decorative item with an overlay that allows it to become a vaguely interactive luxury toy, we can talk about this box knowing what we get after spending ten hours assembling the 3662 parts in the inventory.

I chose to put on gloves to assemble this set in order to offer you some photos without the inevitable fingerprints on the entire black body of the piano. I do not regret having done it and I can only advise you to do the same, the construction loses enough of its cachet with the multiple stripes, the differences in color between the different more or less black parts, the dots of injection which remain visible and some parts which tend to "curl" a little without adding a complete collection of fingerprints.

Those who have never approached a piano in their life will have the opportunity here to discover a simplified but credible version of the mechanism of the instrument with its hammers at the end of the keys, its strings, its soundboard and its strong pedal. which lifts the choke block. The buildable piano in this box is also an instrument with the features available on the real versions with a two-part hinged cover, a movable sheet music stand and a cover to cover the keyboard.

From the start we install the three elements of the ecosystem PoweredUp, le Smart Hub, the motor and the sensor, which will give life to this piano by setting in particular the camshaft which will move the keys during the automatic playback of a musical track. Access to Smart Hub is done through a door placed on the side of the piano body which allows the element to be turned on or off and removed to change the batteries without having to disassemble anything.

At this stage of the assembly, we are not really bored despite the few sub-assemblies that must already be reproduced in several copies. It is when it comes to mounting the piano keyboard that the repetitiveness of the sequences quickly becomes boring. It's hard to blame the designer, you have to assemble the 25-key keyboard at one point or another. It might have been interesting to distribute the assembly sequences of the three keyboard modules over the entire assembly phase to dilute the repetitive side a little instead of having to string them together after having already spent half a dozen days. 'hours on the record.

The level of finish of the model is sawtooth. The keyboard cover is adorned with a pretty pad-printed piece of a vintage version of the brand's logo that fits perfectly with the technique used by different manufacturers to identify their instruments. The large cover of the instrument is for its part the sub-assembly which really reveals the most annoying aesthetic defects which I mentioned to you above. Under the light, this large black surface gives pride of place to stripes and color variations.

With the last of the 21 bags in the set, we also assemble a pretty little stool whose seat is adjustable in height via a mechanism using an endless screw, just to have a successful exhibition product. The final touch is a pad printed score of a piece composed by Donny Chen, the piano teacher who proposed the LEGO project from which this box is inspired. It takes place on the support provided for this purpose which will also accommodate the essential smartphone used to take advantage of the various functions integrated into the product.

Visually, nothing to say, it is very successful and we get a nice grand piano a little more compact and with the body a little higher than on a "real" version of the instrument, but everything is there with the possibility to present it open or closed and to leave the keyboard visible or not. We just regret the few red pins that remain visible at the level of the pedals and feet, LEGO obviously having difficulty in standardizing the appearance of certain products without insisting on the "construction toy" side.

We will have fun for a few moments watching the hammers bang on the golden rods that embody the strings of the piano and I must admit that the internal mechanism has its small effect, even without using the application. Powered Up. The set remains a toy made from LEGO bricks and it is not uncommon to see a key jam. Nothing serious, but it is not a model adjusted to the millimeter.

I see some who will not fail to note that the retail price of the product could have been more reasonable if LEGO had chosen to make the "interactive" overlay of the product optional. Why not, but I remain convinced that LEGO wants to modernize the image of its products a little to find its place in a market that gives pride of place to digital and / or interactive products and an instrument that does not make music right out of the box. and without going back to the cash register, it's still a toy from another era.

Here, the piano plays music, but it plays by itself and it is not able to reproduce a single note without the presence of the speaker of a smartphone or tablet. You have two options: listen to the piano play a few notes while watching the keys move on their own or pretend to be the one playing the audio track selected in the application by pressing the keys. The selection offered is not top-notch and I don't know if LEGO has plans to flesh it out with other pieces. As it stands, you have to be content with a dozen audio tracks to listen to, including "Happy Birthday to You"And"We Wish You a Merry Christmas". Okay.

When you pretend to play, you can actually press any key on the keyboard, the application will play the next note of the chosen score in any case. You therefore only influence the speed of execution of the sequence. The level of interactivity is very relative on arrival and you quickly get tired of pretending to take yourself for a pianist by "playing" one of the five tracks on offer including the two popular themes mentioned above with the great classic "as a bonus"Jingle Bells ":

More annoying: The mechanism of the instrument is really noisy, and you have to turn up the sound of the smartphone to try to cover the click of the keys which itself barely covers the sound of the motor. One would expect with a toy made from plastic bricks, but the hubbub generated by the keyboard really contrasts with the model's refined look.

All that for that and I am tempted to conclude that for 350 €, it is really poor. But this luxury fan music box who has the means and the desire to exhibit a beautiful instrument in his living room or his office still has some assets that will allow him to find his audience, even if it is a niche product that targets a specific clientele.

The set offers a good dozen hours of assembly with certainly repetitive steps but also some very interesting techniques to obtain the smooth and curved surfaces of the piano body and a very successful internal mechanism despite the presence of a little play in the keyboard and keys that sometimes get stuck.

As for the console of the set 71374 Nintendo Entertainment System, this set is a product that is not intended to appeal to all LEGO fans and so it's up to you to see if you really need a brick piano on your shelves, depending on your affinities with the instrument or your conservatory memories.

We may regret that such a high-end product suffers from the same faults as more affordable LEGO sets in terms of finish and quality of the parts, it is time for the manufacturer to seriously look into the standardization of the colors of certain categories of products. parts and on the packaging of its products which favors the appearance of scratches on many elements.

The overlay of interactivity could almost have been convincing if it were not satisfied with some uninteresting music, as if LEGO were betting on the fact that the buyers of this set will only use it to wish a happy birthday or a merry Christmas. to someone...

Note: The set presented here, supplied by LEGO, is as usual in play. Deadline fixed at August 22, 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.