"Explore the evolution of aeronautical innovation"

That same logic could apply to the Millenium Falcon. The Da Vinci flyer is a neat artifact, but has absolutely nothing to do with aeronautical innovation.

A well known competitor of LEGO’s did a figure scaled version of this as part of its Assassin’s Creed line a few years ago. I managed to snag two on clearance. One is part of my display collection where it is being flown by a LEGO ninja minifigure armed with a crossbow.

I love it!

That's definitely a Cole earth dragon.

@johleth said:
"Needs Captain Janeway."

I agree :D

0/2 Flying artifact creature, casting cost 0.

Cool idea and it looks nice, but 60 euros? Maybe for 40.
Otherwise, this is a "collectable LEGO ornithopter set"...

It's interesting but I think I need a review of this before I can make up my mind on it. It's clever and good value, but I'm not sure if I'm interested enough.

@johleth said:
"Needs Captain Janeway."

Then I'd have to 18+

Impressive model, and for a decent price too!

@Murdoch17 said:
"also, the famed documentarian Ken Burns is coming out with a PBS film on Da Vinci very soon...
Coincidence? I think NOT!"

I watched it pretty fire

@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"If only 20215 were still in circulation. Level 10 is DaVinci themed. (Oh well, I still own one.)"
Master Builder Academy mentioned, you are awesome.

That entire wave had some pretty cool historically-inspired sets!

Set looks cool but I don't like price. We can compare it with Harry Potter Dragon 76406 which had more pieces (also clothed wings), was bigger and costed 50€ even with IP rights!

Not sure if here Lego has to pay anything for DaVinci name?
Anyway my eyes say 40€ set

It looks great. But at the same time, looks like a really badly designed Ninjago set that would never take off in real life.

This ornithopter Should’ve been a gwp with the Dune ornithopter!

The question for me that is not clear on the images, can a minifigure fly it?

Or is this another 40450?

What

@Ridgeheart said:
"Leonardo: best renaissance master, worst ninja turtle. I like this set, and I don't completely hate the price."

You forgot fairly decent actor.

Can this still count as a castle set, because I have no other Renaissance sets to put this with?

Doesn’t massively resemble John Rhys Davies… but I suppose that’s ok. As another user already observed, the far bigger issue is the omission of Janeway ;)

You know, from a certain point of view, this could be considered the third minifig of a John Rhys-Davies character.

@Briczk: No, Lego wouldn't have had to pay anything for the name. The man died five hundred and five years ago, so likeness rights wouldn't be a consideration.

@myth said:
"Will go nice on a shelf with the Concorde and Space Shuttle. I wonder if they’ll continue with other aircraft. Wright Flyer and Spirit of St. Louis would be nice"

Lego's actually done the Spirit of St' Louis twice, though nowhere near this level of detail: 456/661 and https://brickset.com/sets/GARDENCITY-1/%7BSpirit-of-St-Louis%7D

Lego goes for years without an ornithopter, and now two come along in as many years...
This does look a little too chunky, and the wings too stubby. Like it though!
My first thought on seeing these photos (especially the side views, and the printed piece in DaVinci's hand, was that this would make a good starting point for a Songbird MOC (Bioshock Infinite)

Looks kinda barebones and skeletal. Like a frame or something.

@myth said:
"Will go nice on a shelf with the Concorde and Space Shuttle. I wonder if they’ll continue with other aircraft. Wright Flyer and Spirit of St. Louis would be nice"

Well, there was also the cool little 40450.

@leviness said:
"I stopped buying lego, even selling them as l ended up flooding the house with it…but..
this may be the first set l would buy for a long time."

famous last words... one more set

Leonardo Da Dumbledore
or Albus Da Vinci

Who knows...

That IS an excellent Idea. I think LEGO as a medium suits that kind of thing perfectly. It might be a day 1 purchase for me!

This will sell like hot cakes.

What a stunning and fun set and I love how the design team integrated the movement.

Fantastic set.

@watcher21 said:
"WTF an old fleshie dude not using obi-wan's head"

The could have just re-used a Gimli head.

@johleth said:
"Needs Captain Janeway."

Imagine how wild it would be if you opened the box and there's an unexpected second Captain Janeway minifigure.

You check the promotional pictures and it's not there.

You report your findings on Brickset and no one believes you.

You contact LEGO customer service and they are super confused, because there's only one minifigure in this set.

@Cabko said:
" @leviness said:
"I stopped buying lego, even selling them as l ended up flooding the house with it…but..
this may be the first set l would buy for a long time."

famous last words... one more set"

One more set...
Another set, another destiny.
This company that knows my love
Will surely make me buy their stuff
One set more
And now my money's gone away
How can I live without this purchase?
One set more

60 euros for less than 500 pieces? Wow... Must be the licensing

Always great to see such an incredibly gifted actor year after year pumping out excellent films and still have time to invent!

I have a wooden model of this and will definitely pick this kit up to compare.

Those magnificent men in their flying machines
They go up, Tiddley up, up
They go down, Tiddley down, down
They enchant all the ladies and steal the scenes
With their up, Tiddley up, up
And their down, Tiddley down, down
Up, down, flying around
Looping the loop and defying the ground
And they're all frightfully keen
Those magnificent men in their flying machines

@CCC:
I mean, that's half-right regardless. Short of finding a planet with the moon's gravity and Earth's atmosphere (or a gas torus like the one in The Integral Trees), that sucker isn't getting off the ground without a catapult assist.

@Sarria:
Funny thing is, if you do the math, based on a minifig standing 6' tall, the model of Earhart's 7-seater plane is almost perfectly minifig scale. Like within less than half a stud difference.

@Ridgeheart:
Almost done watching the first season of Tales of the TMNT, and the other Turtles call him Leo Nardo. And before that, Rise of the TMNT made Raphael the leader. Leo kinda didn't have much of a point in that version, being basically just a lesser version of Mikey. Second-best fighter and second-best jokester.

@TheOtherMike:
Nope. Until you can produce a Janeway minifig, this is just another dead guy. Also, didn't they have to secure the rights to the Colosseum? That's even older than da Vinci.

I'm sorry, walle-- wait, only $50? Heck yeah!

@BaneShake said:
"I'm sorry, walle-- wait, only $50? Heck yeah!"

I mean, it's gotta be a typo, right? Or are they just paying some sort of obscene airplane tax on the other side of the pond?

@PurpleDave said:" @TheOtherMike:
Nope. Until you can produce a Janeway minifig, this is just another dead guy. Also, didn't they have to secure the rights to the Colosseum? That's even older than da Vinci."

I have no idea about the Colosseum rights, but it's a building, which I'm pretty sure da Vinci was not, so that would probably be a different situation.
@BaneShake said:
"I'm sorry, walle-- wait, only $50? Heck yeah!"

Yeah, I voted "Maybe, I haven't made up my mind yet" in the poll because I hadn't paid any attention to the price. But once I saw people discussing the price, I definitely made up my mind and added it to my wanted list.

Allegedly ’The Virgin On The Rocks’ flew better.
Also this required a code to get it started.

Cool partpack.

@GrizBe said:
"Knowing the actual Da Vinci design well, this is rather too bulky in the body, and far too stubby in the wings to be an accurate depiction. Seems making it 'playable' with the trigger wings has compromised it too much from being a good display set, which is what something like this should really be.

Also, £55 for this? eeeessshhh.... Lego's getting a little too greedy with its pricing yet again. Its no wonder pretty much every set at non-lego retailers gets discounted within a few weeks right now. "

Honestly if I was a lego retailer I'd be rethinking how many copies I order from them depending on the initial rrp. I've been seeing sets on sell more and more, no way third party retailers aren't losing money on those. Maybe they still make net profit from business with lego because of more popular sets but shelf warmers seem to be rising in quantity.

@Reventon said:
"Those magnificent men in their flying machines
They go up, Tiddley up, up
They go down, Tiddley down, down
They enchant all the ladies and steal the scenes
With their up, Tiddley up, up
And their down, Tiddley down, down
Up, down, flying around
Looping the loop and defying the ground
And they're all frightfully keen
Those magnificent men in their flying machines"

Good movie, while the sequel was not. (I personally prefer The Great Race)

@Murdoch17 said:
" @Reventon said:
"Those magnificent men in their flying machines
They go up, Tiddley up, up
They go down, Tiddley down, down
They enchant all the ladies and steal the scenes
With their up, Tiddley up, up
And their down, Tiddley down, down
Up, down, flying around
Looping the loop and defying the ground
And they're all frightfully keen
Those magnificent men in their flying machines"

Good movie, while the sequel was not. (I personally prefer The Great Race)"

I loved that movie as a kid, I haven't watched it in 30-40 years... I had no idea there was a sequel!

To be pedantic: it may be more proper to abbreviate the artist as "Leonardo" because "da Vinci" was not a surname like we know them today, but a phrase specifying he was the Leonardo from the place known as Vinci. It'd be like referring to "John from Chicago" as "from Chicago" for short, and Leonardo would not have been referred to just as "da Vinci" by his peers.

@Joce1275 said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
" @Reventon said:
"Those magnificent men in their flying machines
They go up, Tiddley up, up
They go down, Tiddley down, down
They enchant all the ladies and steal the scenes
With their up, Tiddley up, up
And their down, Tiddley down, down
Up, down, flying around
Looping the loop and defying the ground
And they're all frightfully keen
Those magnificent men in their flying machines"

Good movie, while the sequel was not. (I personally prefer The Great Race)"

I loved that movie as a kid, I haven't watched it in 30-40 years... I had no idea there was a sequel!"

It's called "Monte Carlo or bust!" everywhere but the USA, or "Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies" in the USA. Released in 1969.

Interview with the designer: https://youtu.be/Il5chwM-QKo
(with a cameo of Balazs from Racingbrick ;- )

@Murdoch17:
My dad and I went to a car show/outdoor screening of The Great Race, and someone brought the screen-used white car, which had been autographed by three of the main cast.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Murdoch17 :
My dad and I went to a car show/outdoor screening of The Great Race, and someone brought the screen-used white car, which had been autographed by three of the main cast."

I want LEGO versions of the Leslie Special and the Hannibal Twin-8 so bad... (I would make them myself, but I'm not very good at cars - especially one with working features like the Twin-8!)

Push the Button, Max!

@8BrickMario said:
"To be pedantic: it may be more proper to abbreviate the artist as "Leonardo" because "da Vinci" was not a surname like we know them today, but a phrase specifying he was the Leonardo from the place known as Vinci. It'd be like referring to "John from Chicago" as "from Chicago" for short, and Leonardo would not have been referred to just as "da Vinci" by his peers."

You'tr right, and I apologize for using the incorrect terminology in my earlier post. Not sure what I was thinking.

@Murdoch17 said:
"I want LEGO versions of the Leslie Special and the Hannibal Twin-8 so bad... (I would make them myself, but I'm not very good at cars - especially one with working features like the Twin-8!)"

I’ve been designing minifig-scale cars since 2006. I’ve won Best Earthcraft at BWC 2011 for my Pizza Planet truck, been nominated for the same award for my snow-covered car a few years later, and I’ve built minifig-scale models of the vintage Routemaster bus, a 1969 Ford F-250 Good Humor ice cream truck, Mater, and the Ferris Bueller Fauxrari. I don’t see myself tackling the Leslie Special anytime in the near future. Probably not the Hannibal Twin-8, either, without anything to race against.

Regarding the action features, it’s entirely fair at minifig scale to build removable/swappable accessories. I originally did this for my minifig-scale Holley Shiftwell, so I could switch her between road and flying modes. Later, I got sick of having to dismantle the wings, and reattach all the parts that go back on the car every time we took down a display, so I just built a second copy to represent her flight mode. I still have to pop the wings, tail, and exhaust before packing her up, but those parts just come off the model. Nothing needs to get put back on in their place.

I do have to admit, though, that I didn’t have the best experience watching the movie. There’s nothing wrong with the movie itself, but I’d gotten off a full day of work, and just barely got home when my dad called and asked if I wanted to go to this car show/movie. I’d never heard of the film, but accepted the invite. I wasn’t thinking of the fact that they were basically going to do it like a drive-in movie. By the time the movie actually started,
I normally would have been heading to the parking lot after watching one indoors. And when the movie ended…it was actually just the intermission. Two hours and forty minutes! (That’s sixteen decihours for you metric folks). It was closer to three hours once you factored that in. The film car was long gone by then, and they stopped grilling food right after intermission, so it was about halfway through the second half that I really regretted only getting one burger. When they put out all the leftover popcorn for free, I kept swiping tiny bags, because that’s all that was left to eat, but it really wasn’t very filling.

Oh, and I still had to get up for work the next morning.

@8BrickMario:
I, on the other hand, do not apologize. If someone just refers to him as Leonardo (and especially if that someone is me), people are going to think you’re talking about a green dude. If you say “da Vinci”…well, the reason he even had that appellation was because “Leonardo” wasn’t enough to differentiate which one you were talking to even hundreds of years before Eastman met Laird.

I had missed out on 20215, so this might be a chance to get some Lego pseudo-history.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
"I want LEGO versions of the Leslie Special and the Hannibal Twin-8 so bad... (I would make them myself, but I'm not very good at cars - especially one with working features like the Twin-8!)"

I’ve been designing minifig-scale cars since 2006. I’ve won Best Earthcraft at BWC 2011 for my Pizza Planet truck, been nominated for the same award for my snow-covered car a few years later, and I’ve built minifig-scale models of the vintage Routemaster bus, a 1969 Ford F-250 Good Humor ice cream truck, Mater, and the Ferris Bueller Fauxrari. I don’t see myself tackling the Leslie Special anytime in the near future. Probably not the Hannibal Twin-8, either, without anything to race against.

Regarding the action features, it’s entirely fair at minifig scale to build removable/swappable accessories. I originally did this for my minifig-scale Holley Shiftwell, so I could switch her between road and flying modes. Later, I got sick of having to dismantle the wings, and reattach all the parts that go back on the car every time we took down a display, so I just built a second copy to represent her flight mode. I still have to pop the wings, tail, and exhaust before packing her up, but those parts just come off the model. Nothing needs to get put back on in their place.

I do have to admit, though, that I didn’t have the best experience watching the movie. There’s nothing wrong with the movie itself, but I’d gotten off a full day of work, and just barely got home when my dad called and asked if I wanted to go to this car show/movie. I’d never heard of the film, but accepted the invite. I wasn’t thinking of the fact that they were basically going to do it like a drive-in movie. By the time the movie actually started,
I normally would have been heading to the parking lot after watching one indoors. And when the movie ended…it was actually just the intermission. Two hours and forty minutes! (That’s sixteen decihours for you metric folks). It was closer to three hours once you factored that in. The film car was long gone by then, and they stopped grilling food right after intermission, so it was about halfway through the second half that I really regretted only getting one burger. When they put out all the leftover popcorn for free, I kept swiping tiny bags, because that’s all that was left to eat, but it really wasn’t very filling.

Oh, and I still had to get up for work the next morning.

@8BrickMario:
I, on the other hand, do not apologize. If someone just refers to him as Leonardo (and especially if that someone is me), people are going to think you’re talking about a green dude. If you say “da Vinci”…well, the reason he even had that appellation was because “Leonardo” wasn’t enough to differentiate which one you were talking to even hundreds of years before Eastman met Laird."

I think it's all in context. You introduce the subject as Leonardo da Vinci for the required clarity and can then refer to him as Leonardo alone afterward. I agree the name alone is vague if it's not established who you're speaking about, but in context, "da Vinci" alone may not be proper.

Definite purchase, will look great on the shelf under my 31213 Mona Lisa.

@8BrickMario:
It's been noted that surnames tend to result from four main sources. Some come from familial relationships, like the son of Jack might be known as Jackson. Some come from job titles, like Smith, Baker, or Clark/Clerk. Some start out as descriptors, which then get adapted by their progeny. And the fourth source is where you live. It turns out, da Vinci is not just a description applied to Leonardo, but was already used as a surname by his family five generations before he was born:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_Vinci_family