Table Football Ideas set revealed!
Posted by Huw,
The winning entry of last year's LEGO Ideas competition We Love Sports has been turned into a set which will be released next month. Here's the press release:
21337 Table Football
2,339 pieces, rated 18+.
£214.99 / €249.99 / $249.99 / AU$379.99 / CA$309.99
Available from 1st November at LEGO.com.
The LEGO Group has revealed the ultimate global celebration of play with the launch of the new LEGO Ideas Table Football set. From the highs and lows of the goals to the cheers echoing throughout the stadium, football lovers can now build and play their favourite game with this exciting new fan-designed LEGO set.
The first to test the new fully functional table football were legendary football icon, and World Cup winner, Thierry Henry and current Manchester United and England star Marcus Rashford MBE – who take on each other with their team of minifigures in a new video. Each player can first build their five-a-side team of LEGO minifigures plus a crowd of teammates and fans that watch from the sides from over 60 different elements before competing in a match.
The LEGO Ideas Table Football set honours football players and fans from around the globe and features a diverse line-up of minifigures. In total, 22 different minifigures can be built to play or watch with a diverse range of hairstyles, facial expressions and skin tones to choose from. The portable size of the set means it is perfect for transporting to play with friends and play ‘away’ or ‘at home’. It also makes an ideal display cabinet piece.
Thierry Henry says: “Throughout my career I’ve played football everywhere you can imagine – from my garden to stadiums across the world and now in a LEGO Ideas Table Football set! LEGO play is all about harnessing the unifying spirit of sport to rebuild the game for fans everywhere. I am very excited to see the new LEGO set bring people together across the world as they master the table football game in brick form.”
Also talking about his involvement in the campaign, England and Manchester United star Marcus Rashford said: “I love building with LEGO bricks – but to now build and play football against Thierry Henry in LEGO form is amazing! Football brings fans together, and it is great to see that the LEGO Ideas Table Football set does the same.”
The set was designed by 16-year-old Hungarian LEGO fan Donát Fehérvári as part of the We Love Sports Contest on LEGO Ideas, and then made into a real set by LEGO Designer, Antica Bracanov, who said: “What makes the LEGO Ideas Table Football set so amazing is that it harnesses the spirit of sport. Donat’s design champions the shared rollercoaster of emotions that fans experience when watching football games. At the LEGO Group, we are incredibly proud to have brought this set to life, allowing fans to swap football boots for bricks, and be inspired take part in the game of play, for the love of play.”
Perhaps the most significant and interesting thing about it is that it's the first non-licenced set to come with flesh-toned minifigs and a selection of heads and hairstyles, both male and female, to enable you to build your 'dream team'.
Let us know what you think about that, and also about it being shrunk from 11-a-side to 5-a-side, in the comments. The set was shown to us at Fan Media Days last week when information about the need to do so was shared. We'll post a follow-up article about it later today.
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140 comments on this article
Looks great but too expensive. 100 EUR max.
HMMMM, not sure about this set, playfield seems very packed and tight for a ball to be kicked around, unlike the original design. Oh and the price, OMG
The price is a bit better than I expected but it's still pricey. The minifigure part selection is incredible though.
I had high expectations for this set. Total disappointment. Truly a wasted and poorly realized idea ... The price, then, is a real joke.
I love that we have diverse skin tones in a non-licensed set! It’s unfortunate that the first set is $250. Hopefully this is the first set of many with flesh-toned minifigs.
That's a pretty substantial deviation from the Ideas proposal.
250€ for this is ridiculous. Even if it was a good looking set - which I don't think it is - this is far too small for such a price tag. It'll be an easy skip for me.
They certainly hit the diversity target! And I mean that in a good way.
I like the concept of this type of Ideas set, in a similar vein as the Maze set quite a few years ago. The price though is a bit inflated, the stand of minifig onlookers probably isn’t really required.
Yeah, the pitch could really use a few more studs in width...
Looks cool otherwise, might get it if it's on sale for like 65-70% MSRP.
Where is the rest of the table?
Foosball: 4 rows of players per side.
vitigo vilitogo viltogolilo idk nice
Wish it focused more on the game rather than the weirdly high amount of minifigures
I'm not sure how you would display this kind of set, I guess on some kind of pedestal so its at an angle and you can see inside.
The diversity aspect is the only good part of this set, IMO. Far too small, far too expensive. Having only two rows per team looks extremely strange...as if you have two half pitch games going on.
...did they run it through the clothes dryer on hot?
Do we know how many pieces the original submission had? It looks substantially bigger but also less bulky.
Looks very small, and the focus went into the minifigs instead (22 figs, 44 heads, 43 hairpieces, with only 10 figs on the field at a time)
I understand the figure parts for mix/match but it overshadows the actual table, and maybe LEGO could've made something like minifig packs instead ? ? ?
As for the table itself, I think Technic Axle Length might have played a big role in scale for sturdyness.
I feel like the minifigure pieces are simultaneously fantastic and totally missing the point. Foosball tables rarely have realistic figures representing the players and they often look identical to each other, so there was absolutely no reason to make the minifigures look realistic and so diverse. Yellow classic smileys with the same hair each would feel more like a foosball table. But I guess since they're trying to celebrate sporting, they went for diverse realistic humans...foosball really isn't in the same vein as actual soccer/football, though, so this set is kind of a weird choice to celebrate sportsmanship.
I like the parts a lot and I'm glad they're being released. But I also think they're entirely pointless for a foosball set and bring in a weird blend of real sports with a pub game table. They also likely bump up the price past the point it needed to be.
250 would be great…for the original layout. This is hardly a game at all anymore. From a physics perspective there’s hardly anywhere for the ball to actually GO. I’m very, very disappointed.
The player positioning is also kinda whack…I get that the goaltender (or whatever you call them in Europe) has to be squeezed in to that cramped last row…but it makes scoring much more difficult than in regular foosball. The whole point is that once you get past the first bulk line you have to get very focused on D because there’s a ton of open space.
Not so here. Damn…this may be the most disappointed I’ve ever been in a set. And the first time it isn’t price, it’s execution. I wanted to play foosball dammit! :)
I love all the new face prints and hair pieces here but that build just doesn't appeal to me as a display set. It looks like a fun thing to have in your basement next to your board games (or a real foosball table) but it doesn't look like an "ideal cabinet display piece". I'll pick this up if it goes on sale one day but even if I was more interested, $250 is $50 too much to begin with.
I'm so bummed about this. If only because the minifigs and the several new hair pieces are amazing. But for $250, it just isn't worth it. It looks to have little display value, and from the looks of it, little play value. It looks uncomfortable to play!
Hate to be negative, but Ideas just seems to only be about expensive sets these days. I miss the days of the $35-60 Ideas set. Alas, the times we live in.
Good looking set but deffo on the higher side for value.
Think there is a typo in the press kit as it's £214.99 on shop @home :)
this is gorgeous, i do love how many things there are for customizing the minifigs, and i LOVE the new hairpieces, but that many fig parts must have jacked up the price, which is far too high. Would have made more sense to have plain monochrome (one colour, idk if that's the word) figures and lowered the price, this is probably going to be at least 300 Canadian and that's just insanity. I would do 200, maybe even 250, but 300 is beyond pushing it.
Wow this totally misses the point. The original designer made, and the fans voted for, a foosball table, not a minifigure pack. This is such an abuse by Lego of the ideas platform
I see Barbra Gordon / Batgirl from The Lego Batman movie has moved onto a career in soccer.
All the figs are nice (that vitiligo one is fire) and also the build. I don’t know who the buyers are, but it is most definitely a fun set
So looks like the pricing is due to the plethora of minifigures accompanying it. I get it, its a business and not charity. but they need to tread real carefully as they will push away fans as they keep pushing the envelope.
Really poor decision to have a subs bench rather than three rows of players for each team. I know they've gone for stability but the finished product looks almost unplayable.
It's certainly colorful and looks a lot of fun but nothing beats the original.
This set is neat! Not for me really, but I’m sure there’s a market for it. I love the introduction of the vitiligo figure and I hope that makes an appearance in a more affordable set in the future, as that could be life changing for a lot of people to be represented in an official LEGO product like that.
I like that the subs sit on what I can only assume is the decapitated heads of previous losers. That's motivation!
On first glance (at work, on my phone, without my glasses on) I thought this was a particularly impressive GWP, not a £200+/2,000pc+ set.
@lego4elio said:
"Wow this totally misses the point. The original designer made, and the fans voted for, a foosball table, not a minifigure pack. This is such an abuse by Lego of the ideas platform"
Can only agree with this. This set looks like a HUGE disappointment, and I say this as someone hating both football and foosball and totally not interested in the set in the first place. Yet I feel the need to defend the original project.
We've been used to Lego taking some liberties from the original projects, but here they've totally missed on what people voted for. Nice of them to have an inclusive diversity policy, but if they wanted to release so many different minifigure parts they should have made dedicated minifig packs or something similar to the BrickHeadz GoBrickMe.
Here people wanted a foosball table to play foosball, something similar to the awesome Maze they released a while ago. Some good old plain yellow figures with broad smiles would have made more sense for a foosball table : it feels closer to real life tables, it could bring up a nostalgia factor that could appeal to people old enough to buy this set, and at the end of the day wasn't yellow skin tone chosen to represent each and everyone out of licensed sets ?
A 250€ heads and hairs pack with very limited play- and exposition- value looks like one of the worst ideas I've ever seen. But to end up looking on the bright side : I used to criticize 75201 for being a too-expensive minifigure-focused set with an ugly model, but now I'll reconsider it because at least this awful set had the decency to be faithful to what it was based upon lol.
Hard pass to me, but I might pursue the minifigures.
That is small and quite frankly, naff.
Well overpriced too.
Imho this has got to be one of the worst "translations" of an Ideas submission into a set. You can hardly call this a table football at all anymore.
Everything (other than the price of course) has been reduced to the max. Doesn't look very playable either.
But at least the marketing BS machine appears to be working at full pelt as always.
Easy pass.
At the price you could get a decent full size proper table football. Way too expensive & almost unplayable. Would be interested in how it would survive the energy of a real game. Probably needs to be 'Kragled' to be of any use!
The figures and the concept with those is great but the sizing on the foosball table and other changes and pricing kind of kill the appeal for me.
Seems like the awesome range of players should have been their own set or line vs cramming it into the foosball project. I'd love to see a minifig pack (maybe something like the city people packs from the last few years like the park/beach sets as a avenue for these diverse figures).
And as has already been called out, the vitiligo head is a great addition.
@Brick_Clicker said:
"Good looking set but deffo on the higher side for value.
Think there is a typo in the press kit as it's £214.99 on LEGO.com :)"
And not for the first time!
It should be at least double this size for that price point. Lego is seriously ruining Ideas releases with these over-inflated price points.
It looks nice... but that's about it.
The field is too small and cramped. You can't play the thing. What's the point of a foosball table that you can't even play? It's just an overly expensive novelty prop at this case.
I like having options for minifigure customization, but this wasn't the right place to have that as a selling point. You can make the figures as diverse as you like, but that doesn't matter if the set is bad. Were they more concerned about the skin of the minifigures that they didn't look at the set and say "hey, we can't even play the thing"? I also think that the figures really should've just been yellow. Isn't the whole point the minifigures are yellow is to allow anyone to fit in regardless of IRL skin tone?
And yes, even though it looks nice and contains a diverse array of figures, I think this is a bad set. It's a foosball table where you can hardly play foosball. It costs way too much, so it doesn't even work as a parts pack for those diverse minifigures. It's not a great display piece, and it's not a great playset.
@dedmonds87 said:
"Hate to be negative, but Ideas just seems to only be about expensive sets these days. I miss the days of the $35-60 Ideas set. Alas, the times we live in. "
I miss them too. It seems to me that nowadays, smaller IDEA sets are only GWP.
Lego.com list the price at £214.99 not the price of £241.99, guess someone mixed up their 1s and 4s.
Still a high price but with all those minifigures it kind of makes sense.
Total miss. . Those who are going to buy it, are only doing it for the figures and the turf, me included.
What is "male" and "female" hairstyle for you? Since when does it have to do with the sexes?
Major miss. Look up any picture of a foosball table, and it is blank identical figures on each side.
It it had been 10 basic yellow smiles and 30% cheaper it would have been fantastic.
@LethCobra said:
"What is "male" and "female" hairstyle for you? Since when does it have to do with the sexes?
"
Who are you responding to?
Yeah this is a huge miss. I wasn't the biggest fan of it being chosen as the original design was a little bland and wasn't actually built to show it could be done, but at least it was still a good idea . . . then Lego takes it, shrinks it and puts in a bunch of unnecessary football players and extra stuff jacking up the price into premium territory while making the set unusable for the original intention. Like this might be one of the biggest misses Lego has had in a while IMO.
@eiffel006 said:
" @dedmonds87 said:
"Hate to be negative, but Ideas just seems to only be about expensive sets these days. I miss the days of the $35-60 Ideas set. Alas, the times we live in. "
I miss them too. It seems to me that nowadays, smaller IDEA sets are only GWP."
Sadly a lot of people vote for the biggest models. I feel like 1/10th of the Ideas that make it to 10,000 are sets that could be made under $100.
So you get enough minifigs for 11 a side, but a table only big enough for 5!
Also where did the 2000+ pieces go in such a small set.
$250 for THAT?! No thanks. It’s cool and the minifigs are neat but … no.
I wish I could see the full roster of minifig heads and hair. I guess I'll just have to wait.
Wow, yeah, this is the worst realization of an ideas set I’ve seen yet. Looks nothing like the original and totally unplayable.
This is way to packed and the players aren't well distributed. It's a cool idea, but the execution is lacking.
WTF is that price ??? At first I was like "oh cool set" and thinking I could play with my daughter and all but yikes. What's the point of making it "portable" as it's said in the press release when at that price tag it'll be stuck in some rich adult fans display shelf ?
Looks fantastic, but I love the minifigures most of all. I might not get the set itself, but hopefully I can find some of those minifig parts on Bricklink. I don't really want the table itself, especially at that price.
Glad to see a greater variety of flesh tones; I still use yellow in my city but this will help a lot with my purist custom minifigures.
Ridiculous pricing. They should have designed this to be a sub-£100 set, which would have been very popular with younger fans.
On top of all the issues that have already been pointed out, the one positive it seems for a lot of people is the minifigures. Not me. Yes, the variety of skin tones and hair pieces is nice, but the kits look dreadful - they all look like they've come from a Star Trek convention, not a football game! If Rotten Tomatoes rated Lego sets, this would be right down there.
This set is a total mess. I don't understand why LEGO had to go overboard on the figs. It is like after the set was "done" they thought: "We need to make this attractive -lets throw in a but load of exclusive figs". And since when do foosball tables have recognizable figs. They should have been monotone, all blue and all red.
I think the real question is will this set be worth it when it hits 40% off or not....still thinking no.
The lack of midfielders creates another problem during play, if the ball starts in the center of the pitch, all the players closest to it have their backs turned, who kicks it?
Like others have said, while it is a nice minifigure pack, it would have been better to focus more on the game rather than the huge amount of figs. especially as there arent enough spaces on the table for them all.
@DB_Bricks said:
"On top of all the issues that have already been pointed out, the one positive it seems for a lot of people is the minifigures. Not me. Yes, the variety of skin tones and hair pieces is nice, but the kits look dreadful - they all look like they've come from a Star Trek convention, not a football game! If Rotten Tomatoes rated Lego sets, this would be right down there."
I thought at first they wore pyjamas, but you’re right, they are all Trekkies!
They can keep it. Money saved.
Using the original submission as a guide, I would first have a go at recreating a larger table using spare parts etc. and simplify the sides etc. although really need metal rods to spin the mini-figs on.
Who'd of thought we would ever see Richard Ayoade in Lego form (blue team)
I'm not the target audience, most likely. But wow, that thing looks small. Most parts are probably into making it super durable and stuff. But how durable can it get anyway if you use actual minifigs for the players?
And as stated before... why is there such a focus on minifigures in a table football model anyway? It looks like they took up too much of the budget and they just got carried away making them diverse. I doubt those hair elements will make the end product _play_ better.
But again, it's not for me. I doubt the target audience is even meant to play with it all that much, considering the price.
Is £214 the correct price as all other sites are putting it at £241. It's still too expensive even at £214
LEGO HQ
- How to increase the price? Under 100€ is a toy for poor...
- Can we make a bigger building?
- NOPE!
- We can add several minifigures without a real motivation...
- YOU'RE A F*****G GENIUS!
The main build has some bulk to it, so I’ll be generous and say this looks like a $140 set.
Well done Lego for picking the same designer that created the Spinal Tap Stonehenge model............
It looks like the comments have already thoroughly discussed my criticisms. Hopefully they do some sort of flesh colored minifig pack akin to Go Brick Me. I like the new flesh heads and hair pieces, but I don't think it should have had a place in this set.
Also, where are the cheap Ideas sets? I miss sets like Tron that were at an affordable price for kids.
Future 40% off set right here, i doubt this will sell good if at all, or be available for more than a year or so.
5 vs 5... wouldn't that make it a Futsal-table?
I love the diversity of the figs in the set and that's what makes it so disappointing. Like, if you have vitiligo or a hearing device you can have a minifig that represents you IF and only if you can afford a $250 Lego Foosball set? That seems like a huge miss, but hopefully it's a sign for more representation in future sets.
Nice minifigure pack. Too bad it includes the table too... :P
I joke, of course. But I'd definitely be all for a genuine minifigure pack set that includes a whole lot of similar minifigure bodies, with a variety of heads and hairstyles of various races and genders to mix and match; it's a really cool concept.
Just in a *smaller* set xD
Have to agree they simply missed the point here. On the bright side, there is no shortage of better expensive sets to choose from.
@erasetheclouds said:
"I love the diversity of the figs in the set and that's what makes it so disappointing. Like, if you have vitiligo or a hearing device you can have a minifig that represents you IF and only if you can afford a $250 Lego Foosball set? That seems like a huge miss, but hopefully it's a sign for more representation in future sets."
The head alone will probably be like $10-20 on bricklink unless it shows up elsewhere.
Okay set, ludicrous price.
This is an absolute failure. They realize people just wanted a foosball table, right? Not a football team battle pack?
This is such a poor allocation of resources in this set. The playing area is SO small. The bulk of the surrounding table is basically bigger than the field itself. There's absolutely no need for the secondary build and absolutely no need for the abundance of minifigs, let alone the tons of extra minifig parts. Why is that here? We wanted a foosball table!
I was SUPER excited for it because I used to play Foosball every day with my coworkers. I went from definitely buying this set from the fan model to "why would I buy this set?" now.
"LEGO play is all about harnessing the unifying spirit of sport to rebuild the game for fans everywhere."
Thierry Henry definitely did not say that.
"Harnesses" appears in the copy two paragraphs later, if there was any doubt before.
I can tell they only limit the selection of new parts in Pick-A-Brick so I have to live with the fact that these new hair pieces exist but won't necessarily be made available for single piece purchase until the set goes the way of the Ideas ball maze.
This looks pathetic with only 5 men per side.
+ Great to get so many heads and wigs,
- Weird to see football players in space costumes...
+ Inclusion and Qatar... very nice move, Lego!
Maybe we need to buy two sets and extend it. After that, put it into an extended stadium. Oh yeah. Need to buy two stadiums for that probably too. How much money is that gonna cost?
I hope M.Henry and Mr Rashford weren't left out of pocket and at least received fair expenses for their kind comments.
After all, Lego must have enough money to pay them a couple of Euro for turning up.
For that price I could buy a real football table and probably get some extra balls and an air horn. The value for what you get is just not there on this one.
It looks fun in pictures, but I doubt it is large enough to have fun for more than 15 minutes. The price tag is a big problem. I bought a sturdy, full-sized foozball table for my family for $250 a few years ago, so I'm good.
The most interesting aspect of this set for me are the minifigures. A very expensive minifigs pack.
Is that a GBC ball sized football? If so, I'll take a hundred of those (just the ball).
Mixed feelings about this. I do get why it was scaled down, and in itself that isn't a problem, miniature football tables with just two rows of players aren't uncommon. And I doubt a football table made from Lego would survive the inevitably rougher handling you get when playing with 4 rows. But I do feel they took it a step to far. Looking at the end result, this just doesn't look like €250 of Lego. And to be fair: it isn't. Becasue there's so much stuff left off the table. I think Lego had their priorities wrong: why 22 minifigs when less than half of those are used in the game? And honestly, these figures don't even look like football players....
Also a missed opportunity: they could make add-on sets of 5 minifigs of major football clubs. How cool would it be to replace these figs with those from Real, Liverpool, Bayern or TOP Oss? I'd buy that!
For $250 you can buy a full size table..
Man I love the minifigs but the set as a whole is pretty meh. I'd love to get those figures but can't justify buying the whole set at this price for the figs alone.
Just me, or is it concerning how quickly the minifigures will become cosmetically damaged through minor chips, scratches and dents under normal intended play, knowing how malleable modern pieces are.
I feel sorry for the fan designer because what they originally came up with will soon (if not already) be available from AliExpress...
Definitely the highlight of the set are the minifigures. For that reason I’ll get it eventually but at deep discount. AU$379 is eye watering.
I honestly wish they’d just can the whole foosball table theme and reintroduce the Sports theme instead.
Rip off :)
@AHYL88 said:
"For context, an actual tabletop football game which is roughly the same size as this set, people have pointed out is at Smyths Toystore for a measly £10. Let that sink in, this set is 21.5 times the cost of the actual toy it's based on...."
Excellent point. Similarly, we always had our eye on 31132 , but instead went for a decent size Playmobil Viking boat with loads of extra figures and a motor for around £40.
That's a steep, STEEP price for what you get. Foosball should've been just that... not it plus an overpriced minifig part pack. Fan designer was done a massive disservice for their vision. Really seems like the designers knew the product size finished model was not worth the price point they set (LEGO prices are set before they design it) so they threw in the extra fig parts to try and make up for it.
Remember the City People Packs that were discontinued (probably because they were fun and decent value)? They should have just made a variant or two of those People Packs with realistic skin tone figs from here. Not buying LEGO's marketing around it--how are you supposed to make yourself via LEGO at a $250 price lock? Give people a cheaper way to be included and get new people parts! Diversity is awesome but meaningless with a $250 entry point locking most out LMFAO
@BrickRandom said:
"Is that a GBC ball sized football? If so, I'll take a hundred of those (just the ball)."
Wondering the same question. If they are then the second hand market will be full of sets being resold without the balls. Might be the way to pick this up a lot cheaper.
Infrequent commenter here, but I think Lego really needs to have a good look at their selection process for IDEAS sets as prices rise. Might not be a bad idea to reduce the limiting part count back to something that would result in a set that is more affordable for most people as well as possibly more creative instead of simply mimicking real life objects.. Reminds me of the whole camera negates the need for artists and artists reinventing their art (e.g. Picasso and cubism) in the Art world.
To add to the chorus from others, this totally misses the point of the original submission, is too small and cramped and certainly overpriced. Diversity and inclusion is fine when done right - but this was completely the wrong set to exercise it in. Very disappointing.
Table Football!!!!!! Sad that it was scaled down.
Meh! I may have picked this up on deep discount for parts if the min-figs were yellow. Oh well.
it looks almost as if the feet of the minifigs on the table can touch!! not a lot of extra space on there at all
I think, in regards to all the comments on the articles related to this set, it is important to remember that the folks here at Brickset represent only a VERY NARROW slice of the Lego fan community. That's not an insult to Brickset members - you're fans as much as any other fan - but I think it's critical to remember that the views of people here do not necessarily represent the views of the vast majority of Lego customers.
The Lego customers I interact with in real life on a daily basis often have completely different views from those shared in these forums. That's almost certainly because this is not a statistically accurate representation of the community, but rather a self selecting segment of fans who have relatively similar views and similar passion for Lego.
So, while I think everyone here has a right to express their views on pricing, scale, minifig diversity, etc, without being subject to ad hominem attacks, it's also worth being humble and understanding that we are just a piece of the Lego community, and there are many other fans out there who have never been to this website who have totally different thoughts about what makes a good, desirable Lego set.
Really cute and really pricey.
is it a $1 for every 10 pieces
How much?!? Well, like in the game - an easy pass!
I think the blue players look like they are wearing medical scrubs and could easily be used in a hospital set or moc.
easy pass for me, not interested and too expensive.
Lego is getting more and more ridiculous. Not just in the price department. Why bother with Ideas anymore if you deliver something completely different.
In going to get this, re-colour it in black and very very dark grey and replace all the figures with Batmen.
The set should have been cancelled, the final model is neither a display model or particularly playable. The price is also pretty crazy for the piece count, Lego seems to really love throwing in pointless extra builds to inflate a piece count lately. I think this is the Ideas set that looks the least like the original, and also functions very differently to the original.
@Cleric42:
Having played foosball, and having watched others play it, I’m surprised that even this tiny version is sturdy enough to hold up. Pinball machines have a tilt sensor. Foosball does not.
This set is a drastic change from the original submission. I see this as more of a marketing statement / stunt on LEGO's behalf for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar. I personally think that 3569 and 3425 from ages ago are 10x better. as they actually allow playability with the set.
In the interivew article, the designers mention that the axles bending was the big issue, yet those two old sets do not even rely on axles and they would make for a pretty good table footbal experience in my view.
The price simply does not justify the scaled down version.
Jang over on YouTube pretty accurately described the feeling most have for this set: too expensive for what you get, and nobody really wins with it.
@MainBricker said:
" @hawkeye7269 said:
"I think, in regards to all the comments on the articles related to this set, it is important to remember that the folks here at Brickset represent only a VERY NARROW slice of the Lego fan community. That's not an insult to Brickset members - you're fans as much as any other fan - but I think it's critical to remember that the views of people here do not necessarily represent the views of the vast majority of Lego customers."
That's very true, the only thing I would say is that Brickset users are more likely to stump up the money for Lego as opposed to your typical Lego fan on the street.
If Brickset users (many including myself have no problem spending £700 on an AT-AT) think this is expensive, than an average Lego fan is definitely going to find it expensive.
If you were to read Brickset comments you'd be led to believe that Transformers and Castle Icon sets would sell out, yet Lego had to do money off vouchers to shift some stock.
So just because Brickset users would spend high amounts on Lego doesn't mean that your average fan would, but if something is expensive for Brickset users then it's more than likely the same for your average fan."
Everything you wrote is true, and I will add that for non [X]FOLs Lego is just another toy. With current economy and things like heating your home or filling gas going up, random people will purchase even less Lego, which isn't known for being a cheap toy to begin with.
I find it interesting that one of the most commented points seems to be about the flesh tones of the players as to whether it has ramped up the price. Too often there is a complaint about Lego choosing not to use them, now there seems to be a divide in choosing to use them.
Personally, I think when you're basing something on real life, diversity and accuracy should apply, like those based on current f1 teams, for example. If you choose to be accurate on skin tone because of an actor, then the same should apply for a sportsperson, especially if you're using other things that apply to that person, such as numbers, for example.
However, there is an interesting line with this set. It is a toy, so the neutral argument of having one skin tone works. However I can also see the argument of political correctness and diversity in football, although I think the symbolism of that doesn't necessarily need to apply to this set. I don't think when people play with these games that they use it as an demonstration of arguing a point over diversity. How it applies to cost, I'm not sure, I agree this set is too expensive, but whether the differing flesh tones makes a difference, I don't know.
This set just sucks and LEGO spits in the face of the AFOL community. Everybody should give up their hobby and give away their collection to me. I will sacrifice my soul and take it of your hands and support you in your cause against this evil and creedy corporation. quitthehobbyandgiveyourcollectiontomr_hankey
@daniellesa said:
"I agree this set is too expensive, but whether the differing flesh tones makes a difference, I don't know."
In itself it wouldn't have, if they just included 10 figures. There's quite a bit of diversity you can create with that number of figures, and 10 yellow figs or a variety of 10 with realistic skin tones shouldn't make any significant difference for the cost of the set.
But 12 more minifigs, even more heads and hair pieces and let's not forget that quite substantial dugout they included to put all that stuff on, that does add cost, while not serving any purpose within the context of this set. Or, considering the fact that Lego apparently first sets the price in stone and only then designs the set, all of that stuff is only there to (try to) justify the price after they scaled down the set. They basically ended up with a €150 set and needed €100 of fluff, and this is what they ended up with.
As for the complaints about Lego not using skin tones, I assume you're aiming mostly at the SC Mercedes set? I can understand why they didn't, but personally I would have loved to see accurate representations of both Hamilton and Bottas. But those are actual persons. The players in this set aren't. So no need for realism here, and that's why I think yellow figures would have been perfectly fine. But if they just included 10 figs with a variety of realistic skin colors and lowered the price accordingly, I bet we would have seen only a fraction of the complaints. You can't please everyone...
I can see a problem with this set if you can play it, when a mini fig kicks the ball his, her little legs are going to bend back or forth and next attempt to kick ball leg's misses because leg's are bent out of position.
What's with the daft side build? Would it not been better to make the pitch 25% bigger?
Also re representation, why not just 10 minifigs of mixed skin tone and gender?
@elangab:
What? Get out of town! POTUS is about to wring every last drop out of the Strategic Oil Reserve to ensure prices remain stable for a very long time. That should get us through the second Tuesday in November for sure.
@daniellesa:
It absolutely is impacting the price per piece of this set. Consider that, if they were all traditional yellow minifigs, they would need to mold one yellow head to cover the entire set. They’d have to assemble one red jersey and one blue jersey, and only give you enough to cover the field and stands. By switching to fleshie minifigs, it looks like they’re using as many as six different colors for heads, which also requires twice that number of different torso assemblies. Not only does this increase the number of runs, and the amount of time devoted to color changeovers, as they produce heads and hands in all these colors, but they probably have to give you extra torsos with each color of hands so you’ll have greater freedom in how you assemble your minifigs. It complicates the logistics prior to printing, as they have to keep the head colors vs print runs straight.
Besides just the production side, several new head printing pads had to be crafted to even make this assortment possible, since many of these prints are new. It sounds like some hairstyles are available in first-time colors, but I’m unsure if any of these hairstyles required new molds.
Regarding the use of skintones, if it’s a minifig of an external character, or an actual person, they use fleshie skintones to match. This includes licensed IP, public domain IP (like Dickens), historical figures, and modern athletes. If it’s a generic minifig, or from an in-house IP, where there is not an established skin color, they have maintained the tradition of using yellow for everyone.
This is a set where the minifigs don’t represent real people or established characters, so by that logic, the minifigs should all be yellow. It’s also a foosball table, which is based on soccer. I’d have a hard time deciding whether to watch soccer or the paint drying on a golf ball, but I recognize that it has probably the widest international appeal of any sport, and therefore it doesn’t matter if they picked yellow or fleshtoned. They would get grief for either choice.
@WizardOfOss:
The Speed Champions minifigs also don’t represent real people. They’ve slipped a few Easter eggs in, but they didn’t obtain any rights to sell sets based on any real drivers, and it’s not a theme that’s based on real drivers.
@PurpleDave said:
" @WizardOfOss:
The Speed Champions minifigs also don’t represent real people. They’ve slipped a few Easter eggs in, but they didn’t obtain any rights to sell sets based on any real drivers, and it’s not a theme that’s based on real drivers."
That's why I get why they went with yellow minifigs. And to be fair, for normal street cars it's only logical. But for an F1 car that does have the markings of actual drivers, I wouldn't mind them making an exception.
@WizardOfOss said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @WizardOfOss:
The Speed Champions minifigs also don’t represent real people. They’ve slipped a few Easter eggs in, but they didn’t obtain any rights to sell sets based on any real drivers, and it’s not a theme that’s based on real drivers."
That's why I get why they went with yellow minifigs. And to be fair, for normal street cars it's only logical. But for an F1 car that does have the markings of actual drivers, I wouldn't mind them making an exception."
If they didn't get the license to base the drivers, they shouldn't have used the numbers because the drivers pick those numbers, they are unique to them, even when they win the championship - or are handed it - they are allowed to stick with their number or use number one. They should have kept the cars blank, then I would agree with the yellow skin tone.
Not having played table football before, what is the proper terminology for this set? Table football or foosball? And if it's the latter, does that mean Lego didn't have to purchase a license for this? As sometimes that is an excuse for the price.
@daniellesa said:
"If they didn't get the license to base the drivers, they shouldn't have used the numbers because the drivers pick those numbers, they are unique to them, even when they win the championship - or are handed it - they are allowed to stick with their number or use number one. They should have kept the cars blank, then I would agree with the yellow skin tone."
Wait....you knew about the bizarre outcome of today before it even happened? ;-)
"Not having played table football before, what is the proper terminology for this set? Table football or foosball?"
Both are correct, but the latter is just the American inability to use the word "football" for anything football related. In this case resulting in some Americanized German (Fußball).
@WizardOfOss said:
" @daniellesa said:
"If they didn't get the license to base the drivers, they shouldn't have used the numbers because the drivers pick those numbers, they are unique to them, even when they win the championship - or are handed it - they are allowed to stick with their number or use number one. They should have kept the cars blank, then I would agree with the yellow skin tone."
Wait....you knew about the bizarre outcome of today before it even happened? ;-)
"Not having played table football before, what is the proper terminology for this set? Table football or foosball?"
Both are correct, but the latter is just the American inability to use the word "football" for anything football related. In this case resulting in some Americanized German (Fußball)."
I'm not surprised, because it seems to be one rule for Redbull, one rule for everyone else. Utter farce, utter biase.
And thank you for the clarification on the term, so licensing has probably contributed towards the price.
So no longer Ferrari International Assistance? I guess they need to change their name....
(as if other drivers don't get some help every once in a while....)
But back on topic, I don't see how licensing played a role here. The set is called "Table Football", also in the US. And even if they called it "Foosball" over there, as far as I know that isn't an officially registered name, just a poor (partial) translation that stuck.
It's just expensive because Lego originally decided to make a a big, expensive set, then found out they had to scale it down but for some reason cannot change the price so threw in some fluff to compensate.
So Lego have sold table football sets before then? And who else sells them? There has to be an origin for the term and a patent.
According to wiki table football was first invented in 1921 and the highest governing body is the International Table Soccer Federation.
Harold Searles Thornton patented the term. Lucien Rosengart used the term 'baby foot.' Lawrence Patterson brought it to America. Alejandro Finisterre patented it in 1937 and his version is the one used today. The ITSF was established in France to promote the game and establish it with the IOC and the GAISF.
As of 2019 there are five official table brands, and the ITSF recognise six others for international and professional tournaments.
Let's have a breakdown of piece price and see how much that leaves.
I'm not trolling, I'm asking a question, as I would like to know because I haven't seen a set like this before and I can't understand the reason behind the expense. It can't just be differing flesh tones.
Even when they did the typewriter they based it on a model made by another brand.
I've been trolled and I think it the worst kind of abuse and one I would never practice.
@daniellesa:
The origin happened so long ago that certain details have probably been lost to time. Finisterre wasn’t the first to create a game based on soccer, but we don’t know if he was aware of, or influenced by, previous formats that existed over 40 years prior. What we do know is that these were patented inventions, and patents don’t last a century. The mechanics of this game have been public domain since before most of us here were born.
@WizardOfOss:
I don’t see what rugby has to do with any of this. Seems pretty clear to me that “tabletop football” was the name of a different game that existed 16 years before the game known as foosball was invented. We got the name foosball from the Germans, the name Soccer from the British, and the name rugby from…well, that one’s right in the name. We’re just using the terms you Europeans gave us!
@PurpleDave said:
"I don’t see what rugby has to do with any of this. Seems pretty clear to me that “tabletop football” was the name of a different game that existed 16 years before the game known as foosball was invented. We got the name foosball from the Germans, the name Soccer from the British, and the name rugby from…well, that one’s right in the name. We’re just using the terms you Europeans gave us!"
Just curious, that other game known as table football, what was that based on then? As for this version, it is football played on a table, hence "table football". That's all there is to it, no more, no less.
As for foosball, not only is it weird that you guys butchered the name (I could see the Germans start another war for this...), but also left out an essential part of it: where did the Tisch go? I mean, how is there a difference between soccer and Fußbal when it is supposed to be the exact same thing?
And I will probably never understand why a game where you rarely use your feet for anything else than just walking is called "football". Apparently it is also nicknamed "hand-egg", but weirdly enough that name makes infinitely more sense....
@8BrickMario said:
"I feel like the minifigure pieces are simultaneously fantastic and totally missing the point. Foosball tables rarely have realistic figures representing the players and they often look identical to each other, so there was absolutely no reason to make the minifigures look realistic and so diverse. Yellow classic smileys with the same hair each would feel more like a foosball table. But I guess since they're trying to celebrate sporting, they went for diverse realistic humans...foosball really isn't in the same vein as actual soccer/football, though, so this set is kind of a weird choice to celebrate sportsmanship.
I like the parts a lot and I'm glad they're being released. But I also think they're entirely pointless for a foosball set and bring in a weird blend of real sports with a pub game table. They also likely bump up the price past the point it needed to be."
Moreover, the same color figures in foosball helps a lot to visually identify your team. So, it even more make sense to make them all the same.
Perhaps already written by other Bricksetters. I feel that LEGO is pricing themselves out of the market. I understand that raw materials, energy and transportation costs increase too. However the average price of the last 8 new sets is 364 Euro on the LEGO website. That's defenitly not aimed at children anymore and for us AFOL the hobby is becoming unaffordable too.
Way too expensive for what it is (just 2 rows of players each). Not to mention it only borrowed the idea of the original. Other than the idea everything was changed.
@MeganL said:
"I love that we have diverse skin tones in a non-licensed set! It’s unfortunate that the first set is $250. Hopefully this is the first set of many with flesh-toned minifigs."
keep fleshies out of non-licensed sets.
Awful set, overpriced; with a dozen poor design choices to-boot.
Theres so much wrong with Lego these days, but this diversity nonsense is rapidly getting out of hand.
I hope someone at the upper echelon gets replaced soon. Someone up-top needs to realise this BS isnt going to be sustainable when the PC brigade vanishes and the world goes back to normal.
Someone at Lego, needs to tell people to design FUN Lego sets with real passion put into them.
Legos recent jumping of the diversity shark continues to impress a tiny fraction of impressionable PC idiots (who more than likely, dont actually buy Lego) while the rest of us have to pay extra to make sure some kid somewhere "feels represented" by a minifig with vitiligo in a £250 set.
@smithy13 said:
"(...) this diversity nonsense is rapidly getting out of hand.
I hope someone at the upper echelon gets replaced soon. Someone up-top needs to realise this BS isnt going to be sustainable when the PC brigade vanishes and the world goes back to normal.
(...)"
Close the comments! Pipe down, everyone else! There's nothing left to be said! White privilege has spoken.
Tell us, sniffy13, what does a 'normal' world look like to you?
It's way too expensive for what it is. The original idea set was better and should have been more realized versus this ultra compact 2 player only table. The minifigures I could honestly care less about and I know its a huge factor in the set being over priced. For me if I can find this on a black friday deal or some sort of deal, buy it, sit on it for 2-3 years then hope that the wide variety of minifig skin tone heads alone should appreciate this for a healthy ROI. Not nice ROI but a HEALTHY ROI.
Yeah Nah.
Just because one can,
doesn't mean one should.
Ok its an idea, but not a good one...
To play table football, one should use a proper table football set,
way more durable than this.
Obviously if it hasn't been said already, Stormtroopers (Vader goal keeper) vs Jedi.