Brickset Bouts: Tree House vs Old Fishing Store
Posted by Huw,
This is the second bout in our knockout competition to find the best set released since Brickset was founded 20 years ago.
In this match, which is actually number 5, we've pitted two Ideas sets against each other.
Read what bandit778 has to say about 21318 Tree House and gunther_schnitzel about 21310 Old Fishing Store after the break, then cast your vote!
If you've not yet voted in the first bout, there's still time to do so.
21318 Tree House
It's big, colourful and is totally different to the usual run-of-the-mill building/vehicle fare that come out as standard releases every year, and it stands out in a sea of average as something special.
It takes one of the most difficult things to accurately build in this medium, turns up the volume to eleven and blasts out a build that will take a long time to be beaten for size and originality in this type of subject matter.
Virtually every previous iteration of a 'Tree House', regardless of theme, tends to be a smaller build with the emphasis on the house and less on the tree.
Even the trees in the excellent 10236 Ewok Village look bland and lifeless compared to the vibrancy of this set.
It also has something for almost every type of LEGO fan. It's a visually stunning build so makes a great display piece but with enough smaller details for interaction with your Minifigures if that's your inclination.
The range of build techniques will be a boon for novice MOCers to learn from whilst keeping the experienced builder happy with its variety. The chances of this type of set getting a re-release are extremely small so the collectors should be happy at the rarity of the build.
It also has great value as a parts pack for MOCing if building trees aren't your thing.
21310 Old Fishing Store
The designers ensured that it is looks great from all angles as a result of the layout using different levels and the wharf around the sides, so even the rear is detailed and display worthy.
The green and brown colour scheme works perfectly with nice blending of browns and angled tiles for a weathered / worn look. The level of detail both inside and out is superb including a nice selection of wild life (fish, lobster, crab, cat, spider and sea gull) and minifigures that puts it ahead of any other LEGO building / modular set released to date.
The build itself is enjoyable, it is slightly repetitive for the sidings but overall it was fun. The box design is attractive and the pricing was decent.
As an overall package, this is an amazing set that has pride of place on display in my home.
Cast your vote!
Having read the above, which of these two sets do you think should go through to the quarter-final for a chance to be crowned "best set of the millennium" ?
The third bout will be held in a few hours. Voting for this one will remain open until 8am BST Tuesday morning and I will announce the result shortly after.
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67 comments on this article
I dont own either, but really appreciate both. I voted Treehouse on the basis on the innovative and beautiful build. While the Fishing Store is gorgeous, it's not completely unlike other DTC buildings of a similar scale, including modulars.
Fishing house all the way. Still one of my absolute favorites
I enjoy the build provided by the Tree House! Combining simple and advanced techniques, and with only a bit of repetition, it's one of the best Ideas sets to date! The set really has something for everybody. The Old Fishing Store is fun, has nice hidden details, and is different enough from a Modular that it was just so hard to decide! Eventually, I chose the beautiful Tree House.
I don't own either but the Tree House got my vote. It's not exactly the most original subject matter but it's brilliantly executed. The Old Fishing Store is more interesting, but its details seem a bit crammed in and it doesn't really work as a toy for me as a result.
I don’t own either of them but very keen to own the Tree House (when it’s in stock again and LEGO seem keen to make money).
The tree house is a really creative set, but the Old Fishing Store blows it out of the water.
That's one of the toughest choices I would say.
My vote for Old Fishing Store, but I like Treehouse too.
Very difficult choice. I have them both but have only completed Fishing Store so that gets my vote.
If I am in doubt, the animals moulds decide for me ;P
The tree house was a wasted opportunity to include animal moulds in my mind. The old fishing store has a lot of them so this is a no brainer for me ;)
Conceptually, the Tree House is great. I got sucked in and bought it. However, actually building it wasn't that enjoyable an experience.
For that reason, whilst I don't have the Old Fishing Store, I had to go with that.
I have both (both beautiful sets!) but haven't build the tree house yet.
That's a real tough nut here. :-/
Finally I really loved building the OFS and I love ALL of the details they put into it - and there's plenty of them in the set!
I cannot imagine the TH can do better.
Although I don't own either, my vote is for Tree House. It reminds me of the Swiss Family Robinson movie.
Huw might have started with an easy one but this might be the hardest! Still thinking...
Guess it doesn't matter as Saturn 5 is the best ideas set.
Just builded the fishing store. Got my vote.
I usually only collect Star Wars, LOTR and Harry Potter, but the tree house is one of the few sets I have bought from another theme and I absolutely love the set. The fishing store looks like a great set, but the tree house is very unique and looks great considering how hard it can be to build trees out of Lego.
The Old Fishing Store just captures beach side architecture so well and it has a very "lived in" feel that is lacking from most of the modulars. I love the little details and 180 play and display without open walls you get in the mass sets. This one is great to have setting alone where the city buildings just feel odd alone. When I need to show someone who isn't much on LEGO what LEGO can do, this is the set I show them, especially the family members who are into fishing, hunting, etc.
I'm not knocking the tree house, it is a nice looking set... But, it falls more into fantasy childhood as someone would have been very rich for something of that scale. I mean it is too big to go with the other modular sets... As such, I wasn't tempted to pick it up except for the fall foliage... so, I passed. I'd prefer to just buy a pack of that at a much lower cost...
OOF, how to choose on this one!??
Hard to make a choice. Both are great set with a unique design
I own both and both look nice as finished pieces, but I just didn't enjoy the Treehouse build and found parts of it rather frustrating. Much nicer details on the Fishing Store too, so I chose that.
I own the Old Fishing Store, but the price jumped so quick I can't justify opening it since it's worth more sealed than it is to me built... It looks pretty sweet!
Treehouse also looks awesome, though I'm not sure I can justify the space for it right now. I voted for this one, but both look awesome!
This one is not at all difficult for me. Old Fishing Store, and by an enormous margin. The Tree House is a beautiful build and I love its subject matter and colors, but there is a lot of compromise. The build is not particularly fun, and even with the enormous canopy of leaves overhead, it's still not enough and the tree looks a bit barren, especially if you were to look at it and imagine the house itself not there.
The Old Fishing Store is the kind of thing I never thought we'd get in a LEGO set. The dilapidation, and particularly the means of creating it (skewing tiles), is extremely unique. All angles look incredible. Considerable thought was put into which pieces would be printed vs stickered to ensure those that don't like stickers wouldn't lose the essential details. The interior is so absolutely dense with detail, it's like nothing I've ever seen - and it really works, and is essential, for capturing the chosen subject matter. Even the split level foundation was more satisfying than I imagined it would be, and I was hooked from the first several steps as I imagined how the rooms would be laid out ahead. It's a stellar set, one of very few I have in my very limited display space, and I think it'll be a long time until we see anything quite like it again. It's not my number one pick, but it absolutely deserves a spot near the top of this list.
These two have so much in common for me...I don't own either of them, they both have extremely positive reviews, they were both originally IDEAS submissions, and they're both on my wanted list. I'm not sure which one I liked more, so I flipped a coin and it ended up deciding for me.
Its a tough one for sure, both great examples of excellent design, useful parts, interesting techniques, nice display piece and superb interior details and a nice change from the usual line up of themes too, in the end I'm giving the tree house a slight edge because its easier to interact with, whereas the OFS is a little hard to get into it and appreciate its interior
The Tree House. It was a tough choice though as I love them both and would love to own them both, but the beauty of the tree house gets my vote.
I love the tree house and I am going to get it soon.
This is a tough call since they both embody the spirit of Ideas [for me] with non-IP, left field builds and designs which wouldn't traditionally feature in Lego's line-up. I like what they did with with the Tree House but it was the Old Fishing Store that got my vote. I still have it built and on display in our study. It has so much detail and is just fun. It's also a great example of a 'risk' albeit a calculated one for Lego Ideas because of its size and pricing.
Old Fishing Store prompted me to write a review of it on this site. It gets my vote. It also stood out amidst a summer of inspiring sets including Saturn V and UCS MF.
I'm a Castle guy, but this is still 100% intact and on display in my LEGO room. Don't see that changing anytime soon.
My vote is for the Fishing Store. I have built both, and I like them both as display pieces. But the TreeHouse was a much more fussy build and it falls apart as soon as you touch it; the Fishing Store was a much more pleasurable experience to make and own!
That was very easy - Tree House of course!
@BricktasticBlog said:
"Tough choice!"
I agree - this could easily be the final
fishing store, because of the shop interior.
A pretty tough decision as both are very cool, but by a whisker, the Tree House gets my vote for being so very different!
The first rule of Lego fight club is...
As others have said, a tough choice. I chose the Tree House, because at Christmas I hung baubles on it. You can't do that with the Old Fishing Store.
Treehouse but fishing store comes close second. Treehouse is something we will likely never see from Lego as they only ever do small trees with one or two pieces of foliage. The fishing store is just another modular with a large number of good pieces to build more buildings which we see much more often. Treehouse is much more unique so gets my vote. Both are great builds though and they're some of Legos best work. Ideas is my favorite theme. If a star wars set wins the final I will be disappointed.
We have both of these built up. They are both awesome display pieces, although the Tree House gets a slight edge for its profile and unique subject matter. I also find that the Old Fishing Store's design/layout makes it a bit fiddly to incorporate into our LEGO city. That being said, I lean towards the OFS for three reasons: (1) sand green; (2) the nautical theme; and (3) as others have noted, it was a more enjoyable build from start to finish, whereas the Tree House definitely had its less-than-fun moments.
The Tree House is nice but not a must have set for me. For me it is the Old Fishing Store, even though I generally do not care for sets with nature colors. This set just captures something not usually done in LEGO. The dilapidated state of the building is great, as well as all the interior details. My waterfront needed a building like this.
I enjoyed the build, though I shared building it with my nephew, who was visiting, we each took turns building a page. It was so interesting that it was hard to share. We both enjoyed building it & the set is still on display.
C`mon, this is a kind of balls kick:) Such comparison can go in finals, but in such an early stage...
I have both and just Tree House has much more interesting building technics, but voted for fishman store, as it looks extremely authentic.
This is like having to choose your favorite child.
Good thing I have no qualms acknowledging one child is superior to the other.
I absolutely adore the Old Fishing Store. It's the most expensive set I own, and was a joy to build!
This is a tough one but the old fishing store edges out slightly for me. It just looks better and more original than the tree house. The tree house looks kinda similar to the Ewok village and tree of creativity and looks a little plain compared to the old fishing store to me.
Easy win vote for the old fishing shop. I bought it on day one from Leicester Sq at the designer signing. My daughter played with the display model in the shop for ages before we had to put everything back inside so they could use it for the signing table. The concept is great, the design just beautiful. I love the colours and sort of modular style and the opening side to access for play. We have it built and set on the harbour side of our street, but its been displayed so the side can still open to play with it.
Really tricky! It was hard to decide but I put the fishing house one. Whilst the treehouse is so cool I had to decide. If I could choose to, I would choose both!
It so difficult to pick one there. They are both awesome sets. I own both of them and I love how the Tree House looks. It is a truly amazing set to display. But the Old Fishing Store was much more fun to build, full of details and to be fair is my favorite modular so far. So OFS it is !
Considering the tree house is retirement after barely a year, the fishing store is the clear winner
Gosh this one was difficult. I ended up going with the Fishing Store because I feel it displays better, but it was close!
I own both of these. I'm voting for the tree house because I think it's more imaginative.
The fish shop is has too many loose parts (creates of lobsters and such) and all those sand green 1 x 2 panels don't look quite right.
Lots of people seem to be going for the fishing store! It was definitely a game-changer for the Ideas theme. I was shocked when it got approved. Correct me if I am wrong, but up until it got approved, only relatively small sets were released? I really felt like Lego used this to test the appetite for large Ideas sets. So we have got this set to thank for the many large sets that continuously get approved under the Ideas platform.
For me though, I’m voting the Treehouse. This is a set that just keeps giving! I look forward to changing the foliage each season and I’ve added lights. It looks absolutely beautiful on display and has some great play value as well. It certainly gets one of the biggest wow responses with visitors. It also helps, that our family love trees and nature, and we live 50 metres from a forest.
This is the most difficult for me. I have both and love both of them.
The tree house is visually frustrating for me to look at as the trunk is way too thick for the height of the tree and could have been integrated with the base better. Fishing store is cooler anyway. A minor weakness of the fishing store is unused space under the model, but all the rest of the space above is stuffed with so much detail it doesn't really matter.
Gah, these knockout rounds are going to be brutal! Again, based on so many criterion, you could start pulling out of thin air why one should "win" over the other. Completely subjectively, this is why I vote The Old Fishing Store: I never thought in a million years it would be approved by Ideas, which means the committee/designers/Ideas team saw something special in it. I can't think of another approved Ideas model that could effectively set the entire blueprint of an entirely separate/successful subtheme in how it would look. Look at RobenAnne's other models (many of which made it to 10,000 votes but were ultimately not approved). And then to see the modifications and the inclusions of the Old Fishing Store into other MOCs and builds in the AFOL community - it just seems to lend itself to so much more creativity into your own builds than the Treehouse which kind of stands alone. Yeah, it's a modular - but it looks different than anything else LEGO ever released before it.
Love the Tree House! Old Fishing Store is "meh" to me.
Tree House for me, absolutely. It's at the top of my Lego wish-list, and I just love everything I've seen so far about the execution of that set. The way it captures the whole nature feel, and the house part of it just feels so homely and inviting.
Not to say that the fishing store is bad, because it isn't! But it just isn't my type of thing, so much; and I feel like it looks a bit too crowded in comparison. That's just me, though.
Again, disclaimer that I don't *actually* own either of these sets, I'm just basing on what has more personal appeal to me ^^
I don't have either (as much I'd LOVE to, and hopefully will eventually), but this is an excruciatingly hard choice. In the end I just had to go with the Old Fishing Store as I'm biased to the modulars and sets like that. I love both of them though - VERY hard decision!
Old Fishing Store for me.
One of, if not the, most creative and satisfying builds I’ve ever constructed. The attention to detail, scale, play features, parts and novelty of the model are beyond many that Lego has ever produced.
I love e fishing shop, it’s quirky and full of character. For me it injects more fun for the build and the display properties are better for me. There’s always something different to look at on it!
Makes me want to buy the treehouse. You should write the adverts for Lego!
I don’t own either, but I think the Fishing Store is the better looking set.
This competition is really highlighting for me just how great the Ideas theme is. So many of the submissions for this "best of the 21st century" list actually originated from fans. Very cool.
I'm out and won't vote in this case! I love both of them and unfortunately I have not built my treehouse yet.
Both sets are the epitome of what the Creator line is missing, I voted for the Old Fishing Store as it's a wonderful addition for my City.
Having worked for one in high school, I _REALLY_ wish the Fishing Store had taken long enough to hit 10k that the boatbuilding shop submitted by the same person went to review first.
I don't own the treehouse but it is wanted, however I was waiting for the LEGO shop to open when the Fishing Store was released and purchased the first one. Loved the build experience and regularly attend to the layout, changing positions of the animals and mini-figs to give it a different look. With the many added details and props inside it has tons of change appeal. Been on display since day 1!
This is really hard I think they are both great sets!
I never understood the appeal of the Fishing Store.
Don’t own either and doubt I ever will. But if I was to buy one I would get the treehouse.
I don't own either set but both are on my wish list and they are both fantastic looking sets. I like the overall look of the Tree House better, so I'm going to go with that one, but it's definitely a tough call!