Review: 31216 Keith Haring - Dancing Figures
Posted by Huw,
The Art theme has encompassed a wide range of styles and genres, and leveraged a variety of building techniques to reproduce artwork in brick-built form.
Keith Haring's bold and colourful imagery of dynamic figures looks like it'll translate perfectly into bricks in the latest Art set, 31216 Keith Haring - Dancing Figures.
Summary
31216 Keith Haring - Dancing Figures, 1,773 pieces.
£104.99 / $119.99 / €119.99 | 5.9p / 6.8c / 6.8c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
Bold and colourful, they'll brighten up wherever they are displayed
- Can be built concurrently
- Accurate reproduction of the original art
- Repetitive to build
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
The American artist created many works featuring dancing figures during his career. The one that's been reproduced here appears to be Dance II, estate authorised in 1998 (source: Artsy), but it's typical of many of them.
The bold and colourful figures are given a strong sense of movement by the simple addition of black lines around them: you can almost see them waving their hands and heads, and jumping up and down.
Each figure has its own instruction manual, which allows for concurrent building with friends or family, and it's not a bad idea to exercise that option if you can, because they are all similar and building one after the other in quick succession can be tedious.
On the face of it they look very simple, just like the artwork, but they actually incorporate many clever techniques to attach limbs and so on at odd angles 'off the grid'.
The figures are five plates thick, which of course corresponds to 2 studs wide, so SNOT techniques have been employed to create rounded corners and semi-circular hands and feet.
They all have a Technic 'picture hanging' piece on the back, and white stands are also provided. They can therefore be displayed on a wall, or on a mantelpiece or similar, utilising the stands.
The movement lines around the figures are clipped to transparent lightsabres and in some cases the new curved shaft typically used to pose flying minifigures. It takes a bit of patience to get them angled and lined up just right.
I was surprised just how big they are: the tallest of the figures, the yellow one, is about 23cm head-to-toe, or 27cm or so including the movement lines. To display them all lined up side-to-side you'll need to allow for over 1m of shelf or wall space.
I think they look particularly good against a plain white background and, from a distance, don't look like LEGO at all. This is partly due to the consistent width of the black borders, even around the curved areas.
The subject matter is almost crying out to be replicated in LEGO and an excellent job has been made of doing do.
Although I was vaguely familiar with the artwork before seeing this set, I didn't know anything about it, or the artist but, nevertheless, I find it very appealing. The figures are playful and dynamic and will add a splash of colour and vibrancy to wherever they are displayed.
The 1,773 piece set is available now at LEGO.com, priced at £104.99/$119.99/€119.99 which seems like pretty good value for money given the size of the figures and number of parts in it.
150 likes
66 comments on this article
Cool set. Great display value. Interesting building process. What's not to like?
Can't see myself ever buying this but it's pretty amazing to see this done entirely in LEGO, well done to the designers.
I was really sure I'd want this, even though they look good, but this review has convinced me otherwise.
Honestly, this is one of the best 'bad' sets I can think of.
I can't imagine this selling well, but it's one of those 'Good value but expensive' sets that I love the look but realistically won't buy.
A novel idea, cool execution. Wish it was in my budget
Amazing design, weak Lego set.
"The figures are five plates thick, which of course corresponds to 2 bricks high..." It should say 1 brick high
Let's run through the mandatory comments now:
1. Nobody asked for this.
2. Why did Lego make this when they could have made something else.
3. Never heard of this.
4. Great parts pack.
5. (Scoffing at Americans and/or dance enthusiasts)
6. Something about any other MOC on the Ideas site over this
You're welcome
@WolfpackBricksStudios said:
""The figures are five plates thick, which of course corresponds to 2 bricks high..." It should say 1 brick high"
2 bricks wide.
Superb set. Both for building techniques and final result.
Actually looks incredible and I've never heard of the art or artist.
Great review of an amazingly cool set! It’ll brighten up any room for sure! I ordered it earlier today and it was already in backorder, will ship within june 17th, can’t wait!
Looks great! Impressive work by the lego designer.
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"Let's run through the mandatory comments now:
1. Nobody asked for this.
2. Why did Lego make this when they could have made something else.
3. Never heard of this.
4. Great parts pack.
5. (Scoffing at Americans and/or dance enthusiasts)
6. Something about any other MOC on the Ideas site over this
You're welcome"
Let me correct that for you:
1. Cool set
2. Good value
3. Novel idea
4. Amazing design
5. Superb set
6. Looks great
You're welcome.
@WolfpackBricksStudios said:
""The figures are five plates thick, which of course corresponds to 2 bricks high..." It should say 1 brick high"
I think they mean 2 bricks WIDE. 5 plates high = 2 bricks wide.
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"Let's run through the mandatory comments now:
1. Nobody asked for this.
2. Why did Lego make this when they could have made something else.
3. Never heard of this.
4. Great parts pack.
5. (Scoffing at Americans and/or dance enthusiasts)
6. Something about any other MOC on the Ideas site over this
You're welcome"
You forgot 7. Complaining about the price.
They've done a good job with the angles and borders. Clever builds but not very interesting for display for me.
I wonder why they didn't use magenta instead of that pale pink.
Such a fascinating example of being very complicated to look very simple, you can’t help but admire the skill
Yeah, i like what i see here.
This is a set that a lot of afols won’t like i guess because they are not familiar with the artist. But even if you don’t know him, it still looks very good and very well designed. This is for houses designed with preppy accessoiries and not so much for dusty afol Lego rooms. I think this will sell pretty well
I’ll get it somewhere down the line :-)
Not familiar with the artist but this is an excellent brick representation of his work! Not picking this one up but I do like the design after seeing more of it in this review.
@CCC said:
"They've done a good job with the angles and borders. Clever builds but not very interesting for display for me.
I wonder why they didn't use magenta instead of that pale pink."
if I had to guess, maybe more/all of these pieces were already in production in pink but not magenta
As I'm not a fan of the LEGO Art theme this is another set that for me is a great generic parts pack if there is ever a great deal on it. Looks like a fun set with interesting techniques for those who like the artwork itself.
Not a set for me, which is cool; Not every set is made for every fan. That said, these are incredibly well-done. The consistency of the black border is fantastic, and they really don't even look like Lego once completed. Overall, amazing translation into Lego of a subject matter that doesn't seem readily adaptable to the medium. Not my style, but very, very cool set.
Haring died in 1990, so I'm not sure about Artsy's date on this. I absolutely love the set, though.
I absolutely adore Keith Haring. This set is a little out of my price range at the moment, but I hope it'll be on sale. I'd love to display this in my office
These look really, really fantastic - borderline optical illusions in terms of how you can display them. As though the figures from the artwork had leaped off the canvas into your living room.
I like Haring's art merely OK, and generally I consider it to be OVER-merchandised, so I won't be buying this set. But I like it a lot, and the designer did an excellent job.
@LEGOFan1981 said:
"Haring died in 1990, so I'm not sure about Artsy's date on this. I absolutely love the set, though."
My mistake, it was ' Estate Authorized 1998' not painted in.
@Ryangaff said:
" @CCC said:
"They've done a good job with the angles and borders. Clever builds but not very interesting for display for me.
I wonder why they didn't use magenta instead of that pale pink."
if I had to guess, maybe more/all of these pieces were already in production in pink but not magenta"
For an uncommon color like a pink, that’s the safest bet. We only got Green Spacemen because it required less recolors than White (and it was more interesting than Black or Blue).
@Krutak said:
"Cool set. Great display value. Interesting building process. What's not to like?"
The absence of minifigures
Seeing the picture of the instruction manuals reminded me of the Mr Men books, which then made me think that I would like to a set of Lego Mr Men in this style.
@noclist said:
"Actually looks incredible and I've never heard of the art or artist."
He’s done some great stuff, but some of it is far more - shall we say - subversive when compared to this, which unfortunately gets overshadowed a bit when his work gets turned into products like this one.
These designs are amazing, but they remind me of mid-90s corporate iconography, like something that might be on a book about how to use Windows 95. Which I guess makes a certain amount of sense.
@MisterP said:
" @Krutak said:
"Cool set. Great display value. Interesting building process. What's not to like?"
The absence of minifigures"
WHERE ARE THE CLONE TROOPERS???
@alLEGOry_HJB2810 said:
"I can't imagine this selling well"
For what it's worth, this is already on Backorder in the US while today's other launches are still available in full.
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"Let's run through the mandatory comments now:
1. Nobody asked for this.
2. Why did Lego make this when they could have made something else.
3. Never heard of this.
4. Great parts pack.
5. (Scoffing at Americans and/or dance enthusiasts)
6. Something about any other MOC on the Ideas site over this
You're welcome"
Of course, it is clear that this set is mainly intended for those who are interested in art and appreciate the artist in question. As can be seen from the comments, these people are few, especially if we count all those who do not know him at all.
The set is otherwise excellent, but how can it compete in popularity with Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, not to mention Super Mario.
In addition, the fact that it does not have a minifigure is clearly blasphemous.
Too bad.
To me the second most famous pop art artist right after Andy Warhol.
These figures are everywhere, even today, and have been for decades, at least over here. At my former school they had an art project where students recreated these figures life size and attached them as decorations to a long wall next to a major intersection in our town. These figures have become a local landmark.
I still have to remind myself, when looking at picture of this set, that I'm looking at pictures of the Lego rendition, not the artwork it's based on. The designer did an excellent job!
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"Let's run through the mandatory comments now:
1. Nobody asked for this.
2. Why did Lego make this when they could have made something else.
3. Never heard of this.
4. Great parts pack.
5. (Scoffing at Americans and/or dance enthusiasts)
6. Something about any other MOC on the Ideas site over this
You're welcome"
One mandatory comment that can't be made here: Complaining about stickers instead of prints.
@Mister_Jonny said:
" @noclist said:
"Actually looks incredible and I've never heard of the art or artist."
He’s done some great stuff, but some of it is far more - shall we say - subversive when compared to this, which unfortunately gets overshadowed a bit when his work gets turned into products like this one.
"
One of my favorites of his is the devastating 1989 "Unfinished Painting" (purposefully left unfinished). While not as subversive as some of his others, it's a brilliant and heartbreaking portrayal of how queer joy and the complexity of a life can be cut so short. I'd encourage everyone to look at it, being aware that Keith Haring knew at that point that he was dying of AIDS
Wonderful set. I was fortunate to see some of Haring’s work in an exhibit a few years ago. This impresses almost as much as the real thing does!
I've been a fan of Keith Haring for many years, I'm from England, and own one of his prints. I've also got a large Lego collection. Personally I'm really happy to see this. Interestingly the art work has picked up appeal recently in England through Collections including Primark. You can't walk through a town centre without seeing something of his, often on a bag. As an artist he made art available for the masses through his studio and collaborations. I'm very happy for this set, I think it's a great rendition and can't wait to build it. Thank you for the review.
Honestly, I have no problem with this. A lot better than the LEGO interpretation of those cheesy "LOVE" signs virtually every town here in VA has stuck in some prominent place.
@MartyMcFly said:
"Seeing the picture of the instruction manuals reminded me of the Mr Men books, which then made me think that I would like to a set of Lego Mr Men in this style."
Mr. Sneeze!
Day one purchase for me.
Big art and Haring lovers in the house so the four of us are gonna' build it simultaneously, drinking wine, beer with some Idles music in the background.
@Nuclearxpotato said:
" @alLEGOry_HJB2810 said:
"I can't imagine this selling well"
For what it's worth, this is already on Backorder in the US while today's other launches are still available in full."
All that indicates is it was more popular than they expected. It doesn’t say anything about how many copies were available at launch. The biggest launches of the year are usually the SW UCS set and the Modular building, but based on sales data from previous sets in those lines, they have a fairly decent idea of how many copies to have on hand for launch, and it’s entirely possible they won’t get backordered on the first day. Something like this could end up like 21110 and sell out in hours with even an unexpected delivery, or it could warm shelves like 76215. For one-off sets like this, it’s very difficult for them to anticipate interest, and they don’t want to end up sitting on pallets of product that simply won’t sell.
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"Let's run through the mandatory comments now:
1. Nobody asked for this.
2. Why did Lego make this when they could have made something else.
3. Never heard of this.
4. Great parts pack.
5. (Scoffing at Americans and/or dance enthusiasts)
6. Something about any other MOC on the Ideas site over this
You're welcome"
And of course: would have been better with a minifig included.
I've no interest (or space) to get this, but kudos to the designers. It's very well executed. Probably the best of the Art sets so far.
This reminds me of "I hear the music in my soul" from Lumines, probably just me though lol
@PurpleDave : true, but in this case I wager to guess it's not due to low supply but rather huge demand.
As has been said, Keith Haring is one of the best known pop art artists in the world. His art can be found on all kinds of products everywhere. From clothing, apparel, public displays like the one I mentioned before, you name it. And it has been like that for decades. If these products wouldn't sell, they would have stopped being produced ages ago.
While I find it hard to believe that there could be anyone who hasn't heard of him, the Brickset community constantly proves that living under a rock might actually be a hobby too.
Anyway, the Brickset community is a tiny subset of the subset of people interested in LEGO, and I don't exclude myself from that description. Going for example by the numbers TLG posts every year, and what are its apparent best selling themes, I can often only shake my head in amazement. So in essence, what do I know. Or what do you.
The thing is, we are not representative of the main LEGO customer base. So, this set might be flying off the shelves, or it might not.
@TeaWeevil said:
" @Mister_Jonny said:
" @noclist said:
"Actually looks incredible and I've never heard of the art or artist."
He’s done some great stuff, but some of it is far more - shall we say - subversive when compared to this, which unfortunately gets overshadowed a bit when his work gets turned into products like this one.
"
One of my favorites of his is the devastating 1989 "Unfinished Painting" (purposefully left unfinished). While not as subversive as some of his others, it's a brilliant and heartbreaking portrayal of how queer joy and the complexity of a life can be cut so short. I'd encourage everyone to look at it, being aware that Keith Haring knew at that point that he was dying of AIDS"
Exactly. This is the (unintended?) problem with stuff like this: it inevitably strips out a lot of the nuance that Harding’s body of work had. I can’t fault the execution though.
Lego Art sets all tend to reduce in price very quickly. I think the inevitable 30% discount will come very quickly and then worth buying.
What's with the wheels/tyres on their back? Am I missing a function?
@KyloBen1012 said:
"What's with the wheels/tyres on their back? Am I missing a function?"
Spacers/padding if you hang them on a wall
@TeaWeevil said:
"One of my favorites of his is the devastating 1989 "Unfinished Painting" (purposefully left unfinished). While not as subversive as some of his others, it's a brilliant and heartbreaking portrayal of how queer joy and the complexity of a life can be cut so short. I'd encourage everyone to look at it, being aware that Keith Haring knew at that point that he was dying of AIDS"
Yes, it is one of those paintings that reflects how AIDS impacted the gay community and a gay man like himself.
@mikesray said:
" @KyloBen1012 said:
"What's with the wheels/tyres on their back? Am I missing a function?"
Spacers/padding if you hang them on a wall"
So instead of scratches in the paint, you get black marks!
@AustinPowers said:
" @PurpleDave : true, but in this case I wager to guess it's not due to low supply but rather huge demand.
As has been said, Keith Haring is one of the best known pop art artists in the world. His art can be found on all kinds of products everywhere. From clothing, apparel, public displays like the one I mentioned before, you name it. And it has been like that for decades. If these products wouldn't sell, they would have stopped being produced ages ago.
While I find it hard to believe that there could be anyone who hasn't heard of him, the Brickset community constantly proves that living under a rock might actually be a hobby too.
Anyway, the Brickset community is a tiny subset of the subset of people interested in LEGO, and I don't exclude myself from that description. Going for example by the numbers TLG posts every year, and what are its apparent best selling themes, I can often only shake my head in amazement. So in essence, what do I know. Or what do you.
The thing is, we are not representative of the main LEGO customer base. So, this set might be flying off the shelves, or it might not."
Interesting that my wife just picked up some 'forever' mail stamps with the fugures on them. They've been pretty ubiquitous in the U.S., too. To the extent that I think most people don't have a grasp of their origin, but just look at them as iconic, graphic images.
@MisterP said:
" @Krutak said:
"Cool set. Great display value. Interesting building process. What's not to like?"
The absence of minifigures"
Ah yes, the absence of monochrome mininigures. Right.
@MisterP said:
" @Krutak said:
"Cool set. Great display value. Interesting building process. What's not to like?"
The absence of minifigures"
A Keith Haring minifigure would've been cool.
I think (?) there is a knock off brand Kieth Haring but you can make him with existing parts.
Get a face with glasses, brown hair piece with receding hairline, white torso, blue legs.
Maybe somewhere online you can find a torso with a Keith Haring design.
Playmobil did some fun little historical figures kits and the artists had little easels to hold miniature versions of their works. I don’t think this kit is less for not including one, but it certainly would have been *very nice* to get Keith Haring: The Minifig as a bonus.
I need a bigger house...
@Nuclearxpotato said:
" @alLEGOry_HJB2810 said:
"I can't imagine this selling well"
For what it's worth, this is already on Backorder in the US while today's other launches are still available in full.
"
It's available from Barnes & Noble. I guess it's exclusive to them as it's not available from Amazon US.
Bought this to get the Spacebaby GWP!
Interesting and sad story!
Worth a read……
https://www.thecollector.com/how-ai-completed-keith-haring-work/
@AustinPowers said:
" @PurpleDave : true, but in this case I wager to guess it's not due to low supply but rather huge demand.
As has been said, Keith Haring is one of the best known pop art artists in the world. His art can be found on all kinds of products everywhere. From clothing, apparel, public displays like the one I mentioned before, you name it. And it has been like that for decades. If these products wouldn't sell, they would have stopped being produced ages ago.
While I find it hard to believe that there could be anyone who hasn't heard of him, the Brickset community constantly proves that living under a rock might actually be a hobby too.
Anyway, the Brickset community is a tiny subset of the subset of people interested in LEGO, and I don't exclude myself from that description. Going for example by the numbers TLG posts every year, and what are its apparent best selling themes, I can often only shake my head in amazement. So in essence, what do I know. Or what do you.
The thing is, we are not representative of the main LEGO customer base. So, this set might be flying off the shelves, or it might not."
Well said!!
This set truly is stunning - I'm still in awe of how well a lot of these shapes came out - not easy to do with LEGO. I'll definitely have to pick it up sometime this year.
I love how this is done, even though I really do not like Haring's art. But for the many who do like it, this seems like a must-buy. The price is okay for the 1700 parts. According to the review it's more of a display piece than a building experience. But I'm sure it will be decently discounted later this year or early next.
@dudeski said:
"I love how this is done, even though I really do not like Haring's art. But for the many who do like it, this seems like a must-buy. The price is okay for the 1700 parts. According to the review it's more of a display piece than a building experience. But I'm sure it will be decently discounted later this year or early next. "
Even if I had a lot more space, I wouldn't have any plans to get the set, but I can see it being an enjoyable build experience. I always enjoy seeing how the designer got the shaping done on sets like this.
@alLEGOry_HJB2810 said:
"Honestly, this is one of the best 'bad' sets I can think of.
I can't imagine this selling well, but it's one of those 'Good value but expensive' sets that I love the look but realistically won't buy."
A great summary. This is an amazingly designed Lego set, which I have no desire to buy.
@TheOtherMike said:
" @dudeski said:
"I love how this is done, even though I really do not like Haring's art. But for the many who do like it, this seems like a must-buy. The price is okay for the 1700 parts. According to the review it's more of a display piece than a building experience. But I'm sure it will be decently discounted later this year or early next. "
Even if I had a lot more space, I wouldn't have any plans to get the set, but I can see it being an enjoyable build experience. I always enjoy seeing how the designer got the shaping done on sets like this."
I suppose you’ll have seen that after building one of the figures, tgen you have four more to go, which are only variations to the same theme.