Review: 910028 Pursuit of Flight
Posted by FlagsNZ,
In the third of a series of reviews of the BrickLink Designer Series, I take a look at 910028 Pursuit of Flight.
Pursuit of Flight is an incredibly adaptable concept build that, provided the foundation mechanism is working properly, can be modified to make any kinetic diorama you like.
Read on as I describe this versatile set as I continue my series of reviews of the BrickLink Designer Program sets.
Summary
910028 Pursuit of Flight, 541 pieces.
£44.99 / $54.99 / €49.99 | 8.3p/10.2c/9.2c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
910028 Pursuit of Flight is a well-designed, solidly built set with huge potential for customisation
- Well designed instructions
- Customisable
- Uses easy-to-source parts
- Sold out early
- Shipping delays
Background
The original project has been designed by Jason Allemann, an AFOL from Canada - known as JKBrickworks at LEGO Ideas and in the wider LEGO community.
Under the banner JK Brickworks, Jason Allemann has submitted several projects to LEGO Ideas. Of note is his Labyrinth Marble Maze and, in collaboration with Grant Davis, the Pop-Up Book. Both have been approved as Ideas sets and gone into production.
Pursuit of Flight
Pursuit of Flight was submitted to LEGO Ideas in early April 2018. By April 21 it had received 1,000 Supporters followed two months later reaching 5,000 Supporters.
It took a further year for this project to reach 10,000 Supporters (June 14, 2019).
Unfortunately, the LEGO Review Board declined to take this Ideas project any further.
BrickLink Designer Program
About a year ago, LEGO announced that certain rejected LEGO Ideas projects would become available through the BrickLink Designer Program.
27 members agreed to participate and
31 10K Club projects were developed further.
From these 31 original projects, five sets were released in Round 1 of this emerging program.
The box
The box is a similar quality to the boxes produced for sets under the LEGO Ideas theme.
Pursuit of Flight is designed for AFOLs 18 years or older.
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The overarching impression, however, is that these are sets designed by LEGO Fan designers.
Looking at the box, there is only one LEGO logo and no LEGO Ideas branding.
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Bricklink Designer Series set boxes are sealed with a distinctive holographic seal.
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The instructions
There is no printed instruction book included in this set. Instructions for 910028 Pursuit of Flight can be downloaded here.
Instructions for all five Round 1 sets can be found here.
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Stickers
There are no stickers in this set.
The parts
There are 541 parts in the set, which have been divided into three building sections of four numbered bags.
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All the parts used in this set are reasonably common and can be sourced from Bricklink easily.
The build
Building the Pursuit of Flight is divided into three distinct sub-builds:
- Bag 1 - the base and mechanism that moves the aeroplanes
- Bag 2 - the landscape, clouds and arms that support the
- Bag 3 - the two principal aeroplanes, and
- Bag 3 - the three alternate aeroplanes
Bag 1
The base of the model and the mechanism are completed.
One side of the base remains open.
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Bag 2
The build continues by creating a micro-scale country village complete with roads, fields and rows of trees.
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The clouds have been removed in this image to show the landscape clearly.
It would be quite easy to customise your own landscape, provided the swinging arms that will eventually hold the aeroplanes are not affected.
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A close-up of the cumulus clouds rising from the village thermals.
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Bag 3
There are two bags numbered 3. One bag contains the parts for the two principal aeroplanes.
There is a bright blue (Bricklink: blue) and dark azur[e] biplane, and a new dark red (Bricklink: dark red) triplane.
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These two aeroplanes have a classic minifigure head as a pilot, each wearing a leather flying helmet.
Clever use has been made of the Round Plate Ø32X6,4 as the spinning propeller.
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The two aeroplanes fly above the clouds and village in a simulated dogfight.
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Second Bag 3
The parts in the second make three alternate aeroplanes.
There is:
- An earth blue (Bricklink: dark blue) and flame yellowish orange (Bricklink: bright light orange) aeroplane that might resemble a Supermarine Spitfire.
- A bright red (Bricklink: red) aeroplane that might resemble Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega 5B.
- A brick yellow (Bricklink: tan) aeroplane that looks like the Wright Flyer, a plane that some people think achieved the first powered flight.
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The Wright Flyer-looking aeroplane uses a smaller Parabolic Element Ø16 as the spinning propeller blade.
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Copyright issues
One of the criteria for eligibility into the BrickLink Designer Program is that IP-based designs will not be eligible.
I asked Jason Allemann to comment on the build, and in particular, the designs of the five aeroplanes. These are some of his views:
"I was prohibited from using any specific planes due to potential licensing or war association, so all of the planes were modified from my original design and prototypes.
"The Red Baron and Sopwith Camel were recoloured, as was the more modern monowing plane, originally modelled after a Spitfire.
"The tan and red planes were originally the Wright Flyer and Vega B, but I redesigned them slightly to make them look a little more generic."
JK Brickworks original Ideas submission
This small kinetic sculpture is designed to celebrate the wonder of flight. The two planes tilt as they move from side to side, giving the illusion of flying gracefully through the air. The mechanism is controlled using a crank on the side of the model, which you can see in the video below.
In an update Jason says, "I think one of the great things about my Pursuit of Flight LEGO Ideas project is that it can easily be customized into other themes.
"Within the realm of science fiction, one needs to look no further than Star Wars for some awesome examples of spaceship chase scenes, perhaps the most iconic of which is the Death Star trench run."
Imagine combining the concept of Pursuit of Flight with 75329 Death Star Trench Run Diorama.
Overall opinion
Pursuit of Flight is a BrickLink Designer Program set that uses easily sourced parts and has a simple design concept so that you are able to make your own diorama.
Compared with the previous two BrickLink Designer Program sets that I have reviewed, this is by far the best designed;
- The instructions follow a comprehensive format
- The construction techniques used in the model demonstrate a robust design that you would expect from a professionally designed LEGO set.
- The model is solidly built as if it has undergone extensive design reviews
There is one, minor, comment I would make:
The two 9M and 11M axles should have been included in the last build step of bag 1. Threading these axles into the Catch with Cross Hole parts is far simpler without the diorama being in the way.
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Customisations
Here is a version called Pursuit of Christmas that uses the brick-built reindeer from 10245 Santa's Workshop
The potential of this set design is endless.
Early sell out and limited numbers
One key criticism of the BrickLink Designer Series sets has been the early sell-out and the fact that the number of sets released is limited to 10,000.
For any set to be selected to participate in the BrickLink Designer Program, they must have already reached 10K Support at LEGO Ideas and then have been Not Approved.
For a set that has already had this level of publicity and support, a limited production run of 10,000 units does not make sense.
However, with this set, and all the other BrickLink Designer Series sets, it is reasonably easy to part the set out at BrickLink and place these parts on a wanted list.
The instructions are only available online and are free to download.
The next review in this series will be 910016 Sheriff's Safe by Il Buono.
102 likes
34 comments on this article
Looks great! Love the idea of LEGO still giving the public an opportunity to buy some of these non-approved LEGO Ideas projects.
Personally I think these should be made widely available, but you can only buy them through Bricklink and perhaps have to do the crowdfunding first.
This is such an awesome model, even the village is excellent. I love all the different planes, they are all easily recognisable (especially in their original format). The Wright flyer is really cool, I love the fact we get a Lego Spitfire (sort of) and the Sopwith Camel and Red Baron are great, especially with the minifig heads!
The 'Spitfire' probably looks a bit more like a BF 109 to me but then the Spitfire is an incredibly difficult aircraft to capture in Lego, let alone microscale! So good on JK Brickworks. The mechanism works really well and looks great! It's also really cool that you can customise it for other aircraft/themes.
Lego's marketing is nonsense as usual though. Firstly, Sopwith Camel and Red Baron are official Lego sets. They are also aircraft from over 100 years ago. We've also had armed biplanes before such as in Pharaohs Quest and frequently in the Adventurers theme so not sure what Lego's problem is?? As for the rest, while I guess Supermarine Spitfire as a WW2 aircraft might still be too 'modern' military, but how on earth is the Lockheed Vega or Wright flyer copyrighted? Lego did an official Lockheed Vega for the Amelia Earhart tribute set like last year. At the same time, Sopwith, Fokker and Supermarine all no longer exist as companies so where's the copyright issue?? And I doubt the Wright Flyer was copyrighted, the Wright brothers died decades ago and I'm sure they would be very happy seeing their invention celebrated in a nice little set like this.
Didn't see in the article, why did they replace the transparent shaft element for the grey axles? Stability?
Love the kit though. Have one. Will definitely mod or make another based off of JK's Star Wars Trench Run.
I BL'd the parts and our kids each made one of these on Christmas day a couple years ago. My boys each did an X-Wing Fighter being chased by a Advanced Tie Wing Fighter, and my daughter did a pink plane with a girl pilot chasing down a bad guy. It was a very fun holiday project for them!
These sets are very easy to get parts on BL and to build; probably cheaper to BL than the sets they are selling. I suspect most people will want to modify it with their own personal favorite kinetic diorama anyway. Jason Allemann has done some pretty cool stuff!
Thanks for the review.
I got the set a few days ago. My son has a passion for aviation, so he wants to build it as soon as possible.
Potential mod: Pursuit of happiness.
In the front: office desk and dollars. In the back: Will Smith, his suit and his son.
"A brick yellow (Bricklink: tan) aeroplane that looks like the Wright Flyer, a plane that some people think achieved the first powered flight."
I think the link in the last sentence is incorrect, it should redirect to this one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont
"(...) These were the first heavier-than-air flights certified by the Aeroclub of France, the first such flights officially witnessed by an aeronautics recordkeeping body, and the first of their kind recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale."
I'm so glad I pre-ordered this set, I absolutely love it. The one thing I don't like is that I only ever bought one, and I would love for a friend of mine to have an official copy with the box and card. There's even still open slots available if the set was still open for purchase, it never maxed out at 10,000! Makes me wonder if they only ever produced however many were ordered plus a couple extra, or if they made as many up to the nearest hundred or thousand above the pre-ordered amount because this set is great and if there are more official copies at LEGO headquarters, I'd love to see them made available.
As a huge fan of both aviation and JKBrickworks' stuff (I have both of the Ideas sets based off of his submissions and always enjoy his videos), I would love to have this. If it had passed review, I would have gotten it. Oh well, I guess I'll have to get the parts separately...
I have followed Jason's Lego creations on Lego Ideas and YouTube for a number of years and now have six of his sets (Galloping Horse, Sisyphus, Flying Bee, Office Worker, Clockwork Heart & Solar System Orrery). His creative ability is superb and his web site (http://jkbrickworks.com) is well worth visiting. Of his flying dioramas I'm very tempted with his Star Wars trench run.
Funny how the star wars out santa version attracts me more.
Nice article. Only problem is that it makes me want this set. I only purchased the fishing boat, and was a bit disappointed by it
@DFX said:
""A brick yellow (Bricklink: tan) aeroplane that looks like the Wright Flyer, a plane that some people think achieved the first powered flight."
I think the link in the last sentence is incorrect, it should redirect to this one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont
"(...) These were the first heavier-than-air flights certified by the Aeroclub of France, the first such flights officially witnessed by an aeronautics recordkeeping body, and the first of their kind recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.""
They also happened 3 years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight, and unless you are Brazilian or French are widely dismissed as not the first controlled heavier than air flights. By the time of Santos Dumont’s first flight the Wright Brothers had flown numerous times, including a 24 mile flight lasting 40 minutes.
Just because it was not before a crowd and not certified by a French Aviation Body does not make the Wright Brothers’ not first. I am no expert, and as an Australian I have no skin in the game, but the overwhelming majority of Aviation experts consider Santos Dumont an important Aviator but not the first.
I made the original MOC, and then got this version. JKBrickworks is one of my favorite designers.
I want to make the Pursuit of Christmas, but stretch it out to 8 reindeer. And try to modify it to put the crank in the middle to reduce the amount of torque/stress.
@DFX said:
""A brick yellow (Bricklink: tan) aeroplane that looks like the Wright Flyer, a plane that some people think achieved the first powered flight."
I think the link in the last sentence is incorrect, it should redirect to this one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont
"(...) These were the first heavier-than-air flights certified by the Aeroclub of France, the first such flights officially witnessed by an aeronautics recordkeeping body, and the first of their kind recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.""
Dumonts early flights was dirigible/airships.
Balloon powered flight. Like 1901 or so?
But the Wright Brother did their plane flight in 1903 while Dumonts controlled flights were in 1906.
Nice thorough review of a very nice set.
It does me make me wonder why it didn't become a Lego Ideas set.
It's always nice to visit the JKBrickworks website and be amazed and inspired.
Also check out Jason's livestream building this set (disclaimer: I moderate his YouTube livestreams): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ldCRgq5A1Y
Other Versions of "Pursuit of Flight" are currently available for purchase at J.K.' Brickworks site. J.K. has genuinely amazing creations and crisp, wonderfully produced videos.
Most Instructions are free. Other models with genuine lego parts are available for purchase through affiliates....
We bought the Star Wars Pursuit long before Lego officially made their version available.
It is among the Best Lego creations we have ever assembled. We Bought and sent one to our non-lego Star Wars fans. It converted them to become Lego builders!
Brilliant little set!
And great that it can be easily BrickLinked!
A large version of this (Pursuit of Flight) was created by winning competitors in an early season of LEGO Masters Australia!
It was fantastic!
Frick, I'm salty about this one. Ordered it and got delayed. Got a new credit card in the mean time. Mailed LEGO about that, but never heard back. When time got around for it to be sent out the old card obviously got declined. I was AFK for personal reasons so missed that email and the order got cancelled. Sure okay, it's my own fault I saw their email after the fact too late, but I was pro-active here in the first place and never heard back from customer services. Oh well, can't have it all I guess.
Can someone tell me when the next round of Bricklink designer program happens ?
@DFX said:
""A brick yellow (Bricklink: tan) aeroplane that looks like the Wright Flyer, a plane that some people think achieved the first powered flight."
I think the link in the last sentence is incorrect, it should redirect to this one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont
"(...) These were the first heavier-than-air flights certified by the Aeroclub of France, the first such flights officially witnessed by an aeronautics recordkeeping body, and the first of their kind recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.""
Even in your own citation, Dumont did not fly what is considered to be an airplane until 3 years after the Wright Bros. Regardless, how is that relevant to this set?
@DFX said:
""A brick yellow (Bricklink: tan) aeroplane that looks like the Wright Flyer, a plane that some people think achieved the first powered flight."
I think the link in the last sentence is incorrect, it should redirect to this one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont
"(...) These were the first heavier-than-air flights certified by the Aeroclub of France, the first such flights officially witnessed by an aeronautics recordkeeping body, and the first of their kind recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.""
Even in your own citation, Dumont did not fly what is considered to be an airplane until 3 years after the Wright Bros. Regardless, how is that relevant to this set?
My only complaint with this set was no physical instructions. Made it very difficult to build
Nice review, thanks.
Still got mine MISB but soon...
@FlagsNZ said:
"Imagine combining the concept of Pursuit of Flight with 75329 Death Star Trench Run Diorama."
That was my first thought the moment I saw 75329. ;¬]
I actually have the Trench Run version of this (got it off MocHub a few years ago) and it works - and looks - fantastic!
One thing though: The "earth blue (Bricklink: dark blue) and flame yellowish orange (Bricklink: bright light orange) aeroplane that might resemble a Supermarine Spitfire" is almost certainly a Messerschmitt Bf 109. No Spitfire that I am aware of was painted in a color scheme remotely approaching blue and yellow, but many Bf 109s were painted with yellow noses and trim that matches closely with the microbuild included in this set (though again the blue is rather odd, but it does look quite visually attractive at this scale).
Example image: https://forum.treefrogtreasures.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=270111&d=1608515939
@Richard_FS said:
"Even in your own citation, Dumont did not fly what is considered to be an airplane until 3 years after the Wright Bros. Regardless, how is that relevant to this set?"
Well, the "controversy" was initially raised by FlagsNZ in his article... I agree that there were several pioneers in aviation, and the recognition of the first one highly depends on the point of view. If we consider public demonstrations as proof, then it was Santos Dumont, in 1906. If demonstrations that were kept in secrecy, with few eyewitnesses, are our criteria, then definitely the first aircraft took off in 1903, no question about it. And flew by Richard Pearse, in New Zealand :-)
I do own this set, but still haven't opened it. It looks neat for sure. But I think I like the Star Wars idea better. Or maybe a Dragon following Harry Potter could be fun (although scale concerns).
JK is really clever with movement, so good for him being linked to so many successful products.
@DFX said:
" @Richard_FS said:
"Even in your own citation, Dumont did not fly what is considered to be an airplane until 3 years after the Wright Bros. Regardless, how is that relevant to this set?"
Well, the "controversy" was initially raised by FlagsNZ in his article... I agree that there were several pioneers in aviation, and the recognition of the first one highly depends on the point of view. If we consider public demonstrations as proof, then it was Santos Dumont, in 1906. If demonstrations that were kept in secrecy, with few eyewitnesses, are our criteria, then definitely the first aircraft took off in 1903, no question about it. And flew by Richard Pearse, in New Zealand :-)"
The Wright brothers' demonstration was not kept secret - quite the contrary.
@gradatim said:
"Can someone tell me when the next round of Bricklink designer program happens ?"
It's over. They are shipping Round 2 late this year, and Round 3 early next year. (Take that with a major mountain of salt!) As for when the next time they do a "round 1" again, who knows... maybe never, maybe after all of round three is out the door. (so 2024, possibly?)
I'm actually impressed they made Spitfire / BF109, or even the WWI fighters in a dogfight. (I thought LEGO didn't do WWII toys!) Yes, they've made the Red Baron and Sopwith Camel (twice for the later plane) from the "War to End All Wars", but never together and without pilot figures to go in them.
Considering pilots in The Great War didn't generally wear parachutes (British pilots wanted 'em, but were forbidden to use them) and Allied pilots were usually dead by 17 days into their flight careers, this is a bit morbid of a set.
HOWEVER: If they included Snoopy in the Camel being pursued by the Red Baron, then it would be funny!
@DFX said:
" @Richard_FS said:
"Even in your own citation, Dumont did not fly what is considered to be an airplane until 3 years after the Wright Bros. Regardless, how is that relevant to this set?"
Well, the "controversy" was initially raised by FlagsNZ in his article... I agree that there were several pioneers in aviation, and the recognition of the first one highly depends on the point of view. If we consider public demonstrations as proof, then it was Santos Dumont, in 1906. If demonstrations that were kept in secrecy, with few eyewitnesses, are our criteria, then definitely the first aircraft took off in 1903, no question about it. And flew by Richard Pearse, in New Zealand :-)"
In a newspaper interview in 1909, with respect to inventing a flying machine, Richard Pearse said,
"I did not attempt anything practical with the idea until 1904"
Witness accounts indicate that Pearse may have been working on a flying machine before 1904, although he stated that he began in February–March 1904.
This is a great creation by JKBrickworks. I loved the first time I saw it. I managed to replicate it with my spares. The best part is you can easily change the landscape to your liking.
I wasn't interested in the set, but if I ever want to build a flying diorama this seems like a great base.
I look forward to reading the review of the safe and your thoughts on the Technic half pin 'mistake'.
I've just finished the first version of the Clockwork
Aquarium and I'm not very impressed with the division of parts between bags and the instructions for alternative models. I'm not sure how much of that is due to the designer but the different options aren't truly modular as it seems like you have to rebuild the glass case part for some of the different backdrops. Meanwhile I have a load of loose parts from a part used bag. I don't think that if it was an official set LEGO would have done it that way.
Thanks to JK Brickworks sharing systematically his amazing ideas and creations on YouTube, I have been able to recreate this one, but the SW version (Tie and X-wing trench pursuit). Based on pictures and looking carefully at his video, often putting it on pause, and after a Bricklink order for specific parts, I have recreated the inside mechanism, which is the point of it all, and then let my imagination roll for the top plate SW decorations and greebles. I have used my old 4484 set for the two ships, which I had bought during my dark ages. It has now found its perfect place on this excellent display little set. The mechanism makes the joy of anyone who comes at home and tries it. So thank you JK once again for your creations, and as I said before sharing all of them with us! For free...
I ordered mine on aug 4 2021 and finally got it last week almost a year later. I get thinking it was just going to get cancelled. Glad I finally received it it's pretty cool