Review: The LEGO Ideas Book New Edition

We are now quickly interested in a book which this year takes over from the first edition based on the same concept and dating from 2011: The LEGO Ideas Book New Edition is, as the title of the book indicates, a collection of construction ideas proposed by some of the most prominent LEGO artists of the moment, such as Rod Gillies, Mariann Asanuma or even Nate Dias and Tim Goddard. The previous edition very quickly became the historic best-seller in terms of LEGO licensed books, the publisher was not going to hesitate to try to repeat the feat by using the same recipe.

Dorling Kindersley (DK for friends) therefore spreads these ideas over 200 beautifully illustrated pages and embellished with some somewhat vague explanations about the techniques presented. This is also the limit of this book to leaf through in your spare time, there are no real assembly instructions inside, you have to be satisfied with the finished models and in the best case of a few exploded views that will have to be observed very carefully in order to hope to be able to reproduce them.

We can not say that the book is sloppy, as is sometimes the case with some of the many books published each year which take advantage of the LEGO license and are content to accumulate full-page 3D renderings. The whole of this book is illustrated with real photos of real creations and it is appreciable even if one has a little the impression to fly over only very quickly the various topics approached.

It will also be necessary to have a very substantial and very varied bulk of parts to be able to reproduce most of the models offered, which can very quickly become frustrating for some fans even if the children who accumulate the sets in their toy box will undoubtedly find over the pages some ideas to reuse part of their inventory and get a little more out of their parts.

A good point: the book covers a very wide range of themes and subjects, and there is something for all types of fans, from microscale to animal creations, vehicles and fantastic creatures. It will therefore be necessary to leave the object in evidence on the living room table and to come back to it from time to time to really discover all of its content and possibly draw some good ideas from it. It is also what one could call a "beautiful book" with a very accomplished finish, heavy paper, very well-treated photos and a plush cover. If you're looking for something to give a LEGO fan who already has almost everything without breaking the bank, this book may be the solution of choice.

You will therefore have been warned: do not expect a book of detailed instructions, it is simply "ideas" and techniques that can be used as a starting point. It is enough to read the comments of customers disappointed by the previous edition at Amazon to understand the extent of the misunderstanding on this specific point.

Should you spend nearly €30 for construction "ideas" collected in a book that is certainly pleasant to leaf through but whose creative added value becomes a little debatable? Nothing is less certain and I think that a few illustrated construction steps would have been really welcome, especially for the more complex models presented in this book. No more or less exclusive model provided with this book as is sometimes the case with other thematic books, the publisher must have imagined that the reputation of the previous edition would be sufficient to ensure a substantial sales volume.

The English version of this book will be available from September 27 on Amazon, we do not know for the moment if a localization in French is planned one day:

The LEGO Ideas Book New Edition: You Can Build Anything!

25.42 €

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Note: The work presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at September 13, 2022 next at 23:59 p.m. Just post a comment under the article to participate.

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