LEGO Olympic Sports - Part 4: Basketball
Posted by CapnRex101,
The Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro is coming to an end today but there are still plenty of medals to be won across a variety of events, including the men's basketball. Basketball is one of the most prevalent sports in the world of LEGO and an impressive range of sets was released between 2003 and 2004. The subtheme is famed for introducing flesh elements to reflect the skin colours of NBA players but also offered unusual play features and some new elements which are still in use today.
Furthermore, the Basketball range includes two minifigures which represent players who have been in action at the 2016 Olympic Games. Discover their identities after the break...
The theme is divided between sets which feature real NBA players and those which include generic minifigures. Some sets included a single player and a ball while others offer entire stadia filled with full teams. 3433 The Ultimate NBA Arena is the largest set in the range and perfectly exhibits the function around which the range is built.
Each minifigure includes springs in its legs and has unusually shaped arms which allow them to pick up the basketball. Pulling back the minifigure and releasing it will shoot the ball towards the net and this works remarkably well as it is possible to adjust the angle and power of the shot to improve your accuracy.
Only two of the 24 players who appeared as minifigures are participating in the Olympic Games: Pau Gasol and Tony Parker. Gasol appears in two sets from 2003 and is competing as part of the Spanish team for the bronze medal today. He is currently the leading scorer in that match while Parker made it to the quarter-final with France and also featured in two sets.
The German football team is in attendance and won the silver medal on Saturday but none of the sixteen DFB Collectable Minifigures are playing at the Olympic Games, leaving Pau Gasol and Tony Parker as the only current Olympic athletes who have appeared as minifigures!
This is our final LEGO Sports article for the time being but we have lots more to come including a review of 71040 Disney Castle and What's Missing? Return of the Jedi which will be published next week.
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Great article! I have really been enjoying reading these Olympic themed pieces over the last couple weeks. I remember I had 3433 The Ultimate NBA Arena back when I was younger. Man I had some fun with that thing! I think I still have it somewhere...
Anyway, I also remember getting multiples of 10121 and trying to collect every NBA team to play in the stadium. I think I had about 10 copies of it!
Thank you for including these Olympic-themed articles. I enjoyed them very much.
My brother had one basketball set, but I don't remember which NBA player it included. Within the sports line, what I had was the football (or soccer as we in the US call it) theme. I always wanted a team bus with more players!
I wish Lego would keep Sport themes going.
I remember visiting Toys R Us in Times Square back when these came out (I was in my dark period of collecting back then) and seeing a life sized NBA figure made out of Lego. Could have been Michael Jordan? Not too sure though.
I keep thinking one of these days I should Bricklink Karl Malone, but the strange arms and legs of the NBA figures hasn't aged well. My cousin had one of the Basketball Lego sets and it was fun to play with though!
Yes, Pau Gasol still plays in Spain...and he continues being the leader!! Unfortunately today's match can be his last match with the Spanish team. Fortunately, they won the bronze medal, great end for an inmortal generation!! Ah, obviously, I have the Pau Gasol's LEGO minifigure!!!
@xboxtravis7992: The torsos and heads of the basketball minfigs are standard moulds, so you should be able to Bricklink (or Brickowl) a regular minifig. You just have to match the colours for the skin and the uniform with regullar arm and leg parts. (Apologies if you have the basketball minifigs in your hand and you already know this!)
Nice article, but I have very important news I am writing this comment from the original Lego land! Biliund
Such a shame I couldn't get any of the sports themed sets before although truth be told, they weren't of my interest. Thanks for these articles and hope to see what's next for the Return of the Jedi sets (not much I gather just a few Rebel capital ships and a few remakes if I am not mistaken).
I take it that it later moved to Billund then "Bucky"?
Never heard of Lego basketball sets or NBA players as Lego figures.
Were these regional releases as in US-only possibly? Does anyone know if these were ever on sale in Europe in general or Germany in particular?
Come to think of it, the entire "Lego Sports" theme is something that I have never seen here in shops / catalogues etc.
Strange.
@AustinPowers
I don't know whether the NBA Stars were released over here, but I do have an old Lego Club Magazine (in German) from 2003 which includes a checklist for all the NBA Basketball players and advertisements for the other sets. The sets were definitely released in Europe, since I got http://brickset.com/sets/3584-1/Rapid-Return at Legoland Germany in 2004.
These sets were such a disaster for LEGO. The so called 'mini figures' are a mess. I remember getting a bunch of those just for the heads at 75 cents for three at Toys R Us.
Ok, thanks for the heads-up. That must have completely passed me by. None of the catalogues I have from that time show any sign of these sets. Then again, I didn't get the Lego Club magazine at the time. We only joined two years ago for our older daughter.