Oh wow, fun! Really cool.

Don't know about $270 though.

Impressive. Most impressive...

So, is there some sort of function to it? It looks like there's gears behind the 'screen' objects.

Anyway this isn't for me. And I'm going to leave it at that.

The idea isn't even that bad, but the price? LEGO are out of their minds!

Wakka wakka wakka wakka wallet emptying…

This is a good year for LEGO sets of videogame franchises. Fingers crossed for Crash Bandicoot...

I think it looks nice. But despite being the target audience it's not of interest. I guess I find most of their "Adults Welcome" sets not very welcoming.

Waw, just waw. The price too but I understand how it got there with all the functions.

And I loooooooooove the light brick for the coin slot, that's so awesome

I wonder how much it would have cost without the "puppets" and the mini-arcade though....

@Binnekamp said:
"So, is there some sort of function to it? It looks like there's gears behind the 'screen' objects.

Anyway this isn't for me. And I'm going to leave it at that."

There’s a video on social media that shows the function, PAC-Man and the ghosts are on a track that moves round the course, it’s really cool

I can’t make up my mind on this one.
Admittedly I did have an electronic PAC-Man game when I was a kid, but it was a yellow plastic box shaped like a PAC-Man. I got so frustrated with it and yes it eventually got broken. Oops!

Personally I liked mrs. Pacman better.

I love the mini-arcade.

Shame this isn't three separate sets really

If you live in Canada, I really envy you: only $50!?

Yeah, I'm sure that's a typo especially when you see the Australian price at $400. For me, this looks like a repeat of the Adidas set from a couple of years ago: for the same price you could have purchased an actual pair of Superstars instead. I did a quick Google and it turns out you can find a Pac-Man 'Counter-Cade' and you can find them down here for about $200-300. I'd rather get one of those compared to a LEGO model that has limited functionality by comparison. The price really hurts in that regard, and the amount of stickers is just insulting.

It's a shame because I really like Pac-Man and the set itself looks really neat. The buildable Blinky and Clyde look excellent (but I don't know why there isn't an option to interchange them with the other two), the vignette and minifig torso is cute, and I have no complaints when it comes down to the displayability of the model. It just comes down to the price and the fact that there's one too many sets on my want list at the moment.

Wow. That is quite something.

And as @Nannig says the backlit coin slot is absolute genius.

It seems we still need an auto-button to complain about the cost though and save a lot of people some time.

This looks awesome and I really like the fact that the ghosts and PAC-man move, topped off by light up play button.

I have no idea if I'll get this or not (not a theme I collect) - but honestly, it looks just so good.

The price is high - no shock there.

Awesome. Day 1 purchase for me.

I just want the little one...

I am a big Pac-Man fan... I have a bunch of collectibles (some vintage) as well as an original cocktail table arcade machine. I must say this set is a mixed bag...

The cabinet shape doesn't correspond to the real thing, the Pac-Man / ghost dots (1x1 tiles) are too small for the playfield, the large ghosts (and even Pac-Man) don't quite look right, and there appear to be large stickers for most (or all) of the branded parts, even the large ghost mouths. The tiles with the blue edge look nice at first, until you notice that the playfield borders are supposed to be longer, without frequent breaks. The mini-scene with the printed minifigure torso might be the best part; would have loved to see that as a small set or even polybag.

Basically this looks like what a third-party brick company (e.g. Pantasy, see their Metal Slug cabinet for $100) might come up with, not a officially licensed product from LEGO. Note that the same could be said about a lot of recent Pac-Man merchandise, i.e. it's all veering pretty far from the source material, to the point of being something else entirely.

@roygal said:
"Wakka wakka wakka wakka wallet emptying…"

Pretty authentic to the real coin eating machine.

NES, Atari, PAC-MAN, Surely the natural next set will be..... TETRIS? There's even a movie on it released recently!

Never a huge fan. Now if they made a Lego Spectrum or Amiga…..

@LegoMike said:
"I can’t make up my mind on this one.
Admittedly I did have an electronic PAC-Man game when I was a kid, but it was a yellow plastic box shaped like a PAC-Man. I got so frustrated with it and yes it eventually got broken. Oops!"

I remember that yellow box - my best mate had one. I was never very good at it.

This looks great, if a little spendy.

It's also the least cringe-worthy press release I think I've read from Lego.

Lego keeps making those sets but I still don't get it. Why should I buy a Lego replica of something that I can buy for the same money? Not no mention that the real thing would be fully functional.

I like it but too much being released that I’d prefer & Lego is out pricing even committed Afols x

Nice set but more of a display set. Strange the press release does not mention the function. I also see chainlinks.

Are those new white 6x8 printed tiles af the top with the logo?

I really like it, looks fantastic, BUT.... £80 will get you a fully functional mini-Pac Man machine (Arcade1Up Collector-cade, similar scale to this set), so I'm struggling to justify the cost.

There is a promotional video on Lego's instagram which briefly shows the mechanical function. I capped the relevant part to spare you watching the whole thing:

https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/13omjq4/10323_pac_man_functions_from_official_marketing/

Turning the handle on the side makes Pac Man and the ghosts move around in a fairly intricate pattern. There is also a light brick behind the "insert coin" tile.

@8lackmagic said:
"I really like it, looks fantastic, BUT.... £80 will get you a fully functional mini-Pac Man machine (Arcade1Up Collector-cade, similar scale to this set), so I'm struggling to justify the cost."

Pac-Man as a game isn’t that great anymore, so building it with Lego might give you more fun and satisfaction? And it looks cool.

Shame that there are two ghosts m.i.a.

I'd buy the brick-built characters, and I'd buy the minifigure scene, but this whole unit? When for around the same money you can buy a fully-working 3/4 size Pac-Man arcade cabinet that'll play 'Galaxians', 'Galaga', 'Dig-Dug' and 'Mappy' as well? That's a bad joke, LEGO.
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9596546

@Joefish said:
"I'd buy the brick-built characters, and I'd buy the minifigure scene, but this whole unit? When for around the same money you can buy a fully-working 3/4 size Pac-Man arcade cabinet that'll play 'Galaxians', 'Galaga', 'Dig-Dug' and 'Mappy' as well? That's a bad joke, LEGO.
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9596546 "

I have that exact unit and, if you have the space, I highly recommend it.

Stickers?

In a $400 (Aussie dollar) set?

LOL no.

I grew up with pacman and space invaders. I already have 5 16x16 mosaics of pacman and ghosts as a display piece on my office shelf. I might get the parts for the little arcade but the whole set is not that interesting for me. For something that big I prefer it to be useful or good looking.

Still a big fan of Pac-man, and when discounted I don't think I'll be able to resist this. Very weird the chain function isn't mentioned in the description, as mentioned by Merman.

Never thought that a Pac-man set will be better made and more interesting to me than a Batman one. Don't know if I would buy it, but I definitely live it!

I think it is an incredible set that no one wants, at a price that is impossible to justify. Weird times.

My disappointment stems from the inclusion of only Blinky and Clyde.

I think it’s a pretty clever set, but I still see the NES and Atari just warming shelves at my local Target.

Funny how the press release mentions Billy Mitchell considering that he has had multiple cheating allegations that have led to his records being stripped, and he tries to sue anyone that provides evidence of such.

The arcade machine looks nice! Though it’s kinda weird there are only two ghosts up top.

I like it, it certainly looks the part and it's cool that they've integrated some sort of functionality (plus the "Easter egg" inside) ... and yet it's just not quite there. It's all fine and dandy as a novelty item, but I suspect that the novelty will wear off pretty quickly. Another expensive dust-gatherer.

More annoying though is that it's another in the ever-increasing collection of sets where it's cheaper to buy the actual "thing" rather than the LEGO model. 10282, 10306, 21327, 21332, 21337, ... where will it end?

Love the set but there are some inconsistencies with the facts as Billy Mitchell has been revealed as a cheater multiple times, he's become a bit of an infamous goofball due to filing lawsuits against any credible evidence that comes his way and then never following through on them

Think they've have been better off just releasing the two additional models. I like the minifig scale cabinet, and the ghost and pacman models, but the large cabinet itself doesn't impress me.

As said above, you can buy an actual gaming cabinet with multiple games on for less then the asking price.

Also, same as mentioned above again about Billy having been stripped of his titles for cheating. I knew about this in the mid 90's. He's partly who Peter Dinklages character in the movie Pixels, who was ultimately revealed as a cheat, was based on.

Set looks pretty cool! Weird that the press release (or the packaging) doesn't detail the functions more, as they elevate this set from just a decent replica to something more intriguing.

Seems like another case of "display piece with functions that will get fiddled with for 5 minutes." The price is eye-watering, the sticker dependency is insulting.

LEGO once again forces a female fig into a set. From my recollection of arcades in the 80: 95% male. Cool fig!

@followsclosely said:
"LEGO once again forces a female fig into a set. From my recollection of arcades in the 80: 95% male. Cool fig!"

So what if it’s a female figure? Women like and attend arcades too.

@followsclosely said:
"LEGO once again forces a female fig into a set. From my recollection of arcades in the 80: 95% male. Cool fig!"

"Forces"...?

I’m surprised by the almost complete negativity of all the posters here!

I was born in 1981, so am probably 5-10 years too young to have lived through the initial early-80’s craze … but I’m certainly familiar with the craze and have played the game on more than a couple of different formats & systems.

It’s a beautiful set with some cool features!
And something unique in LEGO right now!
Yes, the stickers and price are downers, but I wasn’t even that shocked or disappointed when I saw the price - compared with some recent releases, it appears almost reasonable!

Come on, AFOL’s …. Be better!
Let’s try spreading positivity for the amazing variety of releases we AFOL’s are being fed!

For the price I feel like you're better off buying a novelty arcade cabinet that's actually playable.

To those complaining about an overabundance of stickers, I looked at the promo photos and video in detail, and:
- all the blue tiles with black used for the "walls" of the game are 100% certainly prints. I count about 80 of those
- more excitingly, the 3 large white pieces with the PacMan logo on top are 99% certainly prints. I see no sticker edges for those on any of the pictures, and if you watch the video on LEGO.com closely,in the segment about 4 secs in you will see that these seem to be prints on the 6x8 slopes. There is still a small chance I am wrong, but would love to hear what others think
- the 1x1 round tiles with pacman and the ghosts are 100% prints
- the ghost eyes are prints

All the rest seem to be stickers however. I do not mind that too much because on the original those would also be stickers-

@Ridgeheart said:
" @lemish34 said:
"I’m surprised by the almost complete negativity of all the posters here!

I was born in 1981, so am probably 5-10 years too young to have lived through the initial early-80’s craze … but I’m certainly familiar with the craze and have played the game on more than a couple of different formats & systems.

It’s a beautiful set with some cool features!
And something unique in LEGO right now!
Yes, the stickers and price are downers, but I wasn’t even that shocked or disappointed when I saw the price - compared with some recent releases, it appears almost reasonable!

Come on, AFOL’s …. Be better!
Let’s try spreading positivity for the amazing variety of releases we AFOL’s are being fed!"

No? We're allowed our opinions. If those opinions aren't favourable, that is the way it is.

@followsclosely said:
"LEGO once again forces a female fig into a set. From my recollection of arcades in the 80: 95% male. Cool fig!"

What a strange, small hill to die on."

I don't mind criticism, but looking at your comments and those of some other frequent posters here some of you just thrive on negativity. Except when you see knights or pirates, then you suddenly jump up and down with joy.

Looks cool, but though I'm old enough for Eighties' nostalgia I am not old enough for Pac Man nostalgia.
Certainly not 270 Euro worth of nostalgia at least.
Still, like the look of it.

Wow, once again I’m nonplussed by the negativity that greets a new set I think is mostly pretty great. I’m glad it turns out not to have been so spoiled in the comments here the other day as I’d feared; “an arcade machine” really understates what this set is, has, and does. Those functions are very sweet.

As is often the case, the “mostly” leaves room for one nagging issue that I do so wish they’d address for sets like this - stickers! An expensive, adult collector-oriented set like this could really stand to use printed parts for everything. But it does seem to have lots of great prints as well, possibly enough to look really good even without the stickers applied. We’ll see.

Otherwise, it looks fantastic, and I do want it. They hardly needed to hit me with it, since there are already far more sets out now (and at all times, really) that I want than I can afford, but I do love it and want it, and I may well get it. We’ll see…

How wild to learn from a LEGO press release of all places where Pac-Man’s iconic yellow came from! I had no idea. I am edified!

@followsclosely said:
"LEGO once again forces a female fig into a set. From my recollection of arcades in the 80: 95% male. Cool fig!"

Funny, because even at the time Pac-Man was touted as a game that appealed to many women - sometimes in ways that were themselves sexist and insulting (e.g., “women like the simple controls”), but still, this particular game was *always* noted as one with wide demographic appeal (which surely contributed to its iconic status, and the fact they’re still producing merch like this for it 43 years later).

I must say, I am gobsmacked by some fans’ apparent belief that the world has many, many times more men in it than women, and that all LEGO sets must reflect this, and that what few women can be allowed into sets must only ever be portrayed doing nothing interesting, and by how offended such fans get when LEGO doesn’t confirm to those narrow expectations but instead puts a woman minifigure somewhere.

I remember thinking years ago when LEGO Dimensions was coming out that the gamer kid in the Midway Arcade Level Pack should have been female, to help alleviate some of the game’s massive gender disparity in the character roster; it would have been so easy with a nonspecific generic character like that, but they kept him male anyway. They kept the Atari kid in the VCS a boy, too. Men and boys are abundantly well-represented throughout LEGO’s sets in general, and yet it’s still never enough; some dudes’ masculinity is so fragile that having girls anywhere is the end of the world. Man, I feel so sorry for them. So, so sorry.

If one could move the chain around by waggling the joystick rather than reaching around the side to turn the crank, then it might have been a fun trip down memory lane.
Also, are there spare stickers for customising the top scorer's name? (I'm asking on behalf of my friends BUM and POO)

43rd anniversary seems random, but okay! Not complaining!

I think it's funny that people are whining about the decals on the sides of this set being stickers when they would've been decals on a real cabinet as well... plus the fact that the "screen" decorations are pretty much ALL printed pieces (at least 10 different printed elements for the "maze", characters, and cherry).

It's not surprising for sticker haters to miss the forest for the trees, but it is pretty silly in this case.

Continuous overpricing and overreliance on stickers in the super-prestigious, adult-oriented sets results in continuous negativity in the comments, who would have thought. I get that it's tiring to some, but so is... continuous overpricing and overreliance on stickers in the super-prestigious, adult-oriented sets.
As per usual with sets like that, not my cup of tea, but the functions seem really well done. And I love that minifig.

Designer: at $270 we can print a quarter on the tile right?
TLG: nope that's out of budget.

@Blondie_Wan said:
"I must say, I am gobsmacked by some fans’ apparent belief that the world has many, many times more men in it than women, and that all LEGO sets must reflect this, and that what few women can be allowed into sets must only ever be portrayed doing nothing interesting, and by how offended such fans get when LEGO doesn’t confirm to those narrow expectations but instead puts a woman minifigure somewhere.
"

In reading the Brickset comments section, I've learned a great many people think that there are literally ZERO

- Female construction workers
- Female Stormtroopers
- Female moving company employees
- Female truck drivers
- Female video gamers
- Female firefighters
- Female criminals
- Female warriors, medieval or otherwise
- Female scientists
- Female AFOLs

And GOD help us if a set has anywhere approaching 50-50 male-female parity. Then it's time for the "Go Woke Go Broke" crowd to show up as they berate Lego for daring to reflect the real world that they try so STRIDENTLY to avoid interacting with.

@ToyTownBreakDown said:
"The maze wall tiles with printed edges will be highly coveted for many MOC designs."
Not that it'd change the desirability of those pieces, but they're actually blue tiles with black blocks printed on them, not black tiles with printed blue edges.

@SolidState said:
"For the price I feel like you're better off buying a novelty arcade cabinet that's actually playable."

How would you build with that and incorporate its parts into other LEGO creations, then?

This looks like a wonderful set. The actual game-play function is my favorite part.

I wish they would have removed the mini-arcade, made it a GWP exclusively for the Pac-Man set, and then lowered the price of the set a little. Oh well.

@followsclosely said:
"LEGO once again forces a female fig into a set. From my recollection of arcades in the 80: 95% male. Cool fig!"

Gender neutral torso, so no problem to switch heads and hair.

@ItsTwentyBelow said:
"Sets like this weird me out. Who has been asking for these kinds of sets? It doesn't make me think LEGO.

I can imagine this interesting about one in every ten customers that walks into a Lego shop. Change my mind."

I'd be surprised if 1 in 10 buy it. But the same can be said for most sets, whether UCS Star Wars, Rivendell, Black Panther, Roller-coaster, etc.

@PurpleDave said:
" @darthmar:
Ms. Pac-Man actually was historically a much more popular game, and I don’t remember exactly why (I didn’t have the quarters to frequent arcades, and the Pac-Man games weren’t really my thing anyways). One thing I know it benefited from was advancements in graphics. Nobody went back and reissued updated versions of games, when it was just as easy to make sequels and spin-offs."

In the original Pac-Man, there’s one maze design, and the ghosts each have preset behaviors that determine what each will do in a given situation. Ms. Pac-Man cycles through four different maze designs, and the ghosts have different, partially randomized behavior. It’s possible for a good player to memorize patterns on the original and stick to them, playing a perfect game; this first sequel is more varied and arguably tougher, and generally considered a better game, though of course the original is the original.

@mirkwoodspiders said:
"I wish they would have removed the mini-arcade, made it a GWP exclusively for the Pac-Man set, and then lowered the price of the set a little. Oh well. "

I can definitely see the appeal of the mini-arcade as a set in its own right, but I’m glad it’s not a GWP. While I am occasionally able to get big sets like this I am seldom able to buy them right at their introduction during whatever narrow window they may come with a set-specific GWP that complements them perfectly, and consequently I usually miss out on such things (like Eiffel’s Apartment). I’m very glad that whether I get this set as soon as it’s released, when it’s being retired, or at any point in between, I’ll get the little arcade build.

@ItsTwentyBelow said:
"Sets like this weird me out. Who has been asking for these kinds of sets? It doesn't make me think LEGO.

I can imagine this interesting about one in every ten customers that walks into a Lego shop. Change my mind."

One in every ten is actually a lot. I'm not sure there’s any LEGO set that interests that high a percentage of the total customer base. Certainly a set doesn’t need to interest that many in order to be a success.

I don’t know about this one, I really don’t. I love the idea and the mechanism looks nicely done. But I can’t help feeling like this is an excellent fan model that I’d spend time looking over at a show, but it’s not something I’d fork out for to sit on a shelf. The brickheadz sized characters are nice, and I can see why they’ve included them here rather than being a separate set. But they’re not enough to convince me to part with my money. The so-called exclusive minifigs are a mug’s game; you don’t go down that path unless you are truly prepared to lose your shirt. I’m certainly not about to spend upwards of £200 on the basis of a printed torso made from rocking horse poo.

So on balance I’m feeling like I do want to play with this, but possibly only once. So I’ll wait for a friend to buy one to show me. Or not at all.

Not at all saying the price isn't steep for what this is, but at at the same time... just like with the Atari set, I guess I still don't understand the comments that are saying "for that price you could get a real console/machine instead."

If I like Pac-Man, and I like Lego, then I'm buying this for the experience of building Pac-Man out of Lego—simple as that.

Purists, look away now!

Plenty of space in that cabinet for something like an rpi0 with a speaker to play the game's music ^_-

This looks really nice! I love that they didn't cheap out and actually recreated the maze faithful to the real thing. I think the separate stand off would have been more fun in a smaller "mini fig scale" (we have the parts to make Pac-man from quarter-circle 1x1 tiles and the ghosts could have been stickers) a la a UCS placard. This would have allowed all four ghosts. Presumably it's the size it is so it can fit on top of the arcade unit. Also super impressive that there's motion, very much looking forward to seeing how that works.

Very nice looking. Not for me (which I'm kinda thankful for), but really enjoying the video game kick Lego's been on lately. EDIT: seeing more information elsewhere, I think I -am- going to need to get this one... sigh.

@gorillax said:
" @WemWem said:
" @Blondie_Wan said:
"I must say, I am gobsmacked by some fans’ apparent belief that the world has many, many times more men in it than women, and that all LEGO sets must reflect this, and that what few women can be allowed into sets must only ever be portrayed doing nothing interesting, and by how offended such fans get when LEGO doesn’t confirm to those narrow expectations but instead puts a woman minifigure somewhere.
"

In reading the Brickset comments section, I've learned a great many people think that there are literally ZERO

- Female construction workers
- Female Stormtroopers
- Female moving company employees
- Female truck drivers
- Female video gamers
- Female firefighters
- Female criminals
- Female warriors, medieval or otherwise
- Female scientists
- Female AFOLs

And GOD help us if a set has anywhere approaching 50-50 male-female parity. Then it's time for the "Go Woke Go Broke" crowd to show up as they berate Lego for daring to reflect the real world that they try so STRIDENTLY to avoid interacting with."

because this does not reflect the real world at all, anybody who went to the arcades back then know that it was almost 99% male, there are some things that appeal to males more than females, and vice versa, not everything is always 50/50
"

Yes you are right, the arcades were 99% male back then, but that's a problem, not something that should be celebrated. It is possible to enjoy the nostalgia of one of the most important video games ever without reinforcing the problems of the past. Having a more balanced approach to gender, race, religion etc can only be a good thing

@gorillax said:
" @WemWem said:
" @Blondie_Wan said:
"I must say, I am gobsmacked by some fans’ apparent belief that the world has many, many times more men in it than women, and that all LEGO sets must reflect this, and that what few women can be allowed into sets must only ever be portrayed doing nothing interesting, and by how offended such fans get when LEGO doesn’t confirm to those narrow expectations but instead puts a woman minifigure somewhere.
"

In reading the Brickset comments section, I've learned a great many people think that there are literally ZERO

- Female construction workers
- Female Stormtroopers
- Female moving company employees
- Female truck drivers
- Female video gamers
- Female firefighters
- Female criminals
- Female warriors, medieval or otherwise
- Female scientists
- Female AFOLs

And GOD help us if a set has anywhere approaching 50-50 male-female parity. Then it's time for the "Go Woke Go Broke" crowd to show up as they berate Lego for daring to reflect the real world that they try so STRIDENTLY to avoid interacting with."

because this does not reflect the real world at all, anybody who went to the arcades back then know that it was almost 99% male, there are some things that appeal to males more than females, and vice versa, not everything is always 50/50
"

A) Even if it’s generally true arcades back then generally attracted more men than women, 99% is a great exaggeration. I'm old; I was there; I know.

B) This is not a general arcade set but specifically a Pac-Man set. Pac-Man in particular was noted even at the time as a game that appealed more equally to men and women; it was in fact specifically intended to be.

C) Even if Pac-Man’s players were 99% male (and again, they weren’t, but put that aside for a moment), it was still played by literally millions of people. 1% of even one million is ten thousand. I unconditionally assure you there have been many, many women players of Pac-Man.

D) This player’s womanhood is signified entirely by the face print (and then only by the subtle detail of the eyelashes) and the chosen hair element, itself a hairstyle traditionally but not even really exclusively male (I’m a guy myself, and as it happens that particular Elsa Schneider / Veronica Lake-style hair is possibly the closest match for my own hair right now, as my hair is quite long at the moment). If it really bothers you SO MUCH that a *giiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrl* is getting her cooties all over your manly man’s game, you can very easily just imagine her to be a guy, or alternately replace the hair and head with more overtly masculine equivalents of the type I’m sure most people here have hundreds of in their inventories.

E) It’s funny how you seem hyper-fixated on the sex of the player on the basis of it not being representative of the typical player of the era, when nothing else about the arcade is similarly typical. There were surely many Pac-Man cabinets situated in similar proximity to gumball machines and trash receptacles, but were over half of them positioned exactly so? Do you assert that a solid *majority* of all such machines were placed on that exact pattern of blue floor tiles? Not one person has breathed a word about those, just about the sex / gender of the player - but any commercial arcade game in a public space would typically be played by many, many players over its operational life, including people of all sexes and genders, races, and ages, with various styles of attire, etc.

F) Retro video gamer dudes are already present in other sets (the Atari VCS, the LEGO Dimensions Midway Arcade Level Pack, etc.). Why should *every* minifigure player of old videogames be the same sex?

@Blondie_Wan said:
" @gorillax said:
" @WemWem said:
" @Blondie_Wan said:
"I must say, I am gobsmacked by some fans’ apparent belief that the world has many, many times more men in it than women, and that all LEGO sets must reflect this, and that what few women can be allowed into sets must only ever be portrayed doing nothing interesting, and by how offended such fans get when LEGO doesn’t confirm to those narrow expectations but instead puts a woman minifigure somewhere.
"

In reading the Brickset comments section, I've learned a great many people think that there are literally ZERO

- Female construction workers
- Female Stormtroopers
- Female moving company employees
- Female truck drivers
- Female video gamers
- Female firefighters
- Female criminals
- Female warriors, medieval or otherwise
- Female scientists
- Female AFOLs

And GOD help us if a set has anywhere approaching 50-50 male-female parity. Then it's time for the "Go Woke Go Broke" crowd to show up as they berate Lego for daring to reflect the real world that they try so STRIDENTLY to avoid interacting with."

because this does not reflect the real world at all, anybody who went to the arcades back then know that it was almost 99% male, there are some things that appeal to males more than females, and vice versa, not everything is always 50/50
"

A) Even if it’s generally true arcades back then generally attracted more men than women, 99% is a great exaggeration. I'm old; I was there; I know.

B) This is not a general arcade set but specifically a Pac-Man set. Pac-Man in particular was noted even at the time as a game that appealed more equally to men and women; it was in fact specifically intended to be.

C) Even if Pac-Man’s players were 99% male (and again, they weren’t, but put that aside for a moment), it was still played by literally millions of people. 1% of even one million is ten thousand. I unconditionally assure you there have been many, many women players of Pac-Man.

D) This player’s womanhood is signified entirely by the face print (and then only by the subtle detail of the eyelashes) and the chosen hair element, itself a hairstyle traditionally but not even really exclusively male (I’m a guy myself, and as it happens that particular Elsa Schneider / Veronica Lake-style hair is possibly the closest match for my own hair right now, as my hair is quite long at the moment). If it really bothers you SO MUCH that a *giiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrl* is getting her cooties all over your manly man’s game, you can very easily just imagine her to be a guy, or alternately replace the hair and head with more overtly masculine equivalents of the type I’m sure most people here have hundreds of in their inventories.

E) It’s funny how you seem hyper-fixated on the sex of the player on the basis of it not being representative of the typical player of the era, when nothing else about the arcade is similarly typical. There were surely many Pac-Man cabinets situated in similar proximity to gumball machines and trash receptacles, but were over half of them positioned exactly so? Do you assert that a solid *majority* of all such machines were placed on that exact pattern of blue floor tiles? Not one person has breathed a word about those, just about the sex / gender of the player - but any commercial arcade game in a public space would typically be played by many, many players over its operational life, including people of all sexes and genders, races, and ages, with various styles of attire, etc.

F) Retro video gamer dudes are already present in other sets (the Atari VCS, the LEGO Dimensions Midway Arcade Level Pack, etc.). Why should *every* minifigure player of old videogames be the same sex?"

Amen.

I just wish that this was not necessary anymore. We are in the 21st century after all and should have evolved enough as a species to find it ok that girls play videogames. Sigh.

For much money, just buy the Arcade1Up Partycade and PLAY Pac-man.
But it is a cool idea.

I am the Pac-Man generation. I had just gotten old enough to bike with my friends to the nearby convivence store that had a small room with a handful of arcade games from Asteroids to Pac-Man. I had pac-Man on teh first at home arcade system that Atari released and I have invested MANY hours in to this game and I am not seeing $270 in value in this set. I still hope TLG doesn't loose money on this I just don't see how it was a wise build. That's close to $300 after tax and when you look at what you've got it's hard for me to see it being worth that much.

@Bubba said:
" @Blondie_Wan said:
"Wow, once again I’m nonplussed by the negativity that greets a new set I think is mostly pretty great. I’m glad it turns out not to have been so spoiled in the comments here the other day as I’d feared; “an arcade machine” really understates what this set is, has, and does. Those functions are very sweet.

@followsclosely said:
"LEGO once again forces a female fig into a set. From my recollection of arcades in the 80: 95% male. Cool fig!"

Funny, because even at the time Pac-Man was touted as a game that appealed to many women - sometimes in ways that were themselves sexist and insulting (e.g., “women like the simple controls”), but still, this particular game was *always* noted as one with wide demographic appeal (which surely contributed to its iconic status, and the fact they’re still producing merch like this for it 43 years later).

I must say, I am gobsmacked by some fans’ apparent belief that the world has many, many times more men in it than women, and that all LEGO sets must reflect this, and that what few women can be allowed into sets must only ever be portrayed doing nothing interesting, and by how offended such fans get when LEGO doesn’t confirm to those narrow expectations but instead puts a woman minifigure somewhere.

I remember thinking years ago when LEGO Dimensions was coming out that the gamer kid in the Midway Arcade Level Pack should have been female, to help alleviate some of the game’s massive gender disparity in the character roster; it would have been so easy with a nonspecific generic character like that, but they kept him male anyway. They kept the Atari kid in the VCS a boy, too. Men and boys are abundantly well-represented throughout LEGO’s sets in general, and yet it’s still never enough; some dudes’ masculinity is so fragile that having girls anywhere is the end of the world. Man, I feel so sorry for them. So, so sorry."

The world in general has no such belief regarding there being more men that women. the fact is that there are slightly more females on the planet than males which is only logical/natural from a biological perspective with how human pro-creation works.

As for how many women are in certain careers, that belief comes from reality. Most construction workers are male. Doesn't mean they all are just enough that the small percentage who are not are just that a very , very small percent and there's nothing any more wrong with that than men representing a small percentage of nurses. Males and females are drawn to different careers so some fields will have a more equitable a balance between the 2 while others will not. As for why this started in teh first place it's because instead of including both a male and female mini-fig TLG provided a female fig and that is not authentically representing the era. Yes arcades had girls but they were the few as it was primarily boys that flooded/funded arcades in teh 80's the decade of Pac-Man. We're we not seeing numerous examples of efforts in society to push false narratives about the roles males and females' have traditionally portrayed I doubt anyone would have said much about this but we are and so they did and they have a valid point. At $270 they should have provided a boy and a girl minifig. "

Boo-effing-hoo. LEGO decided to include a girl minifig in a a videogame set and not a boy and our American friend Bubba does not like it. Why? Because girls do not play videogames sir! At least not in the era the set depicts! At least not in his twisted mind. And at least not in majority. We do not care about diversity! We want what Bubba wants!

Djeez, this comment and the argument behind it is so sad that I do not even want to argue where it gloriously fails. What it does show is that Bubba does not like that LEGO portrays women playing videogames because that does not fit into his alphamale/alphanumeric mind.

Yeah, you can buy a working one for less, but you know what's cool about this one?

It's made out of Lego.

@gorillax said:
" @Robibani said:
"Yes you are right, the arcades were 99% male back then, but that's a problem, not something that should be celebrated. It is possible to enjoy the nostalgia of one of the most important video games ever without reinforcing the problems of the past. Having a more balanced approach to gender, race, religion etc can only be a good thing"

they're trying to sell a product based on nostalgia by overlooking the main demographic that would be nostalgic over it, if that makes sense to LEGO then good luck
"

Wow, you are so out of touch with current reality, that you you can barely see reality at the horizon. Reality is not even a line for you, it is a dot! Dear lord! I have never seen someone so out of touch with reality! Get a doctor in the room!

In all seriousness, the fact that your brain is activated and ticked off because the minifig in this set is a girl and not a boy is just sad. It is so so so so sad that even 60 years after the 60s and all the fights for equality we still have people like you and your tiny brain being ticked off by a toy company that dares to portray a girl playing videogames. Boy, if I were a girl and you would be my daddy, I would not be the happiest girl in the world

How difficult would it have been for Lego to have included all four ghosts?

Every model these days feels like there was a shortcut made.

@MugenLazlo said:
"Who's going to pay $270 for this?"
Me. Well £230 anyway. It's fantastic!

I was there in the arcades when they began. I remember enjoying them because there were girls there, at least 30-40%. If there weren't, I wouldn't have been interested in hanging around. Girls and video games. Ah, I can almost smell the cherry lip gloss!

Incels... calm down. The world is more interesting if it doesn't continually reflect your image. You'll still exist even if you don't see endless reflections of yourself everywhere. But... you might have to work a little bit harder. Time to put down the controller, and climb out of mama's basement.

@Blondie_Wan:
And the so-called original five LEGO colors are what they reduced their color palette down to because someone’s wife (I think Godtfred?) suggested, being a fan of Piet Mondrian’s work. Mondrian was one of the most important names in the “de Stijl” art movement, and eventually decided to limit himself to the three primary colors (red, yellow, blue), the three primary values (black, grey, white), and the two primary directions that can be most easily represented in 2D art (horizontal and vertical). Another name for “de Stijl” is Neoplasticism. So, full circle?

@MugenLazlo said:
"Who's going to pay $270 for this?"

Well, according to the poll above, at least 420 Brickset members. :o)

@TheOtherMike:
"You can build one with $50 in parts from Radio Shack, some soldering, woodworking, and art classes, and an intensive course in computer programming. Why would anyone buy a premade arcade cabinet?"

That better?

Folks complaining about the price - what are you basing your complaint on? It's a licensed set, with what appear to be 6x6 printed tiles, plus a ton of moving parts and mechanisms, for 10.2 cents per piece.

Just because a set "feels" expensive to you doesn't mean it's priced outrageously.

@tmtomh:
The set is objectively expensive. The price per piece is not, however. The two things can both be true, but people get caught up on the former and project that on their impression of the latter. If it's expensive, it must therefore be _too_ expensive.

The only person I've known to get addicted to playing Pac-Man was my mom, so a female minifigure is oddly appropriate for me.

@AHYL88 said:
"This looks really cool and should be right up my alley, being a gamer and a Lego fan. But it's just not for me at that price, that I'd prefer to spend that on several other sets, or other large heavily discounted sets.

And I have to say something about some of the comments; take yourself out of the Lego vacuum for one minute and realise that Lego is not the end all be all. I know this is a Lego database and blog site and we're all fans here but it has to be called out; the excuse of paying so much for "the build experience" as a justification over the real thing the set is based on can only get you so far before you have to ask yourself, is/was it really worth it? Especially for sets like this, the Atari and other buildable versions of objects which are mainly just going to be static displays, functional or not. I've been burned before from the Grand Piano set, which I did enjoy building, don't get me wrong, but on reflection I regretted spending so much on that single set due to being so relatively small compared to other sets of the time like Pirates of Barracuda Bay. Every set purchase since then has been super careful.

Just something to throw out there, cos not everything in your life needs to revolve around Lego."

I mean, once the set is built and put on the shelf, only you can decide if it's worth it to you or not. Me personally, I've built many of the Lego "replica" sets like the NES and Ship in a Bottle, and I still think they're absolutely worth it because they're exactly what I wanted: Lego sets based on things I like that I can build and then have as a cool display piece.

I don't think anyone here with that argument is saying that Lego is the end all be all, or that their whole life revolves around Lego. What I'm saying is that the real object and the Lego set it's based on both serve fundamentally different purposes despite representing the same thing. In this case, I don't want a real arcade machine that plays Pac-Man; I would want this set specifically *because* it's a static display piece that I can build out of Lego. The Lego aspect, at its core, is what sets it apart.

Again, I still think the price is steep and I totally understand it's not for everyone; that is definitely its own conversation. I just think it's a bit disingenuous to suggest that the real thing would automatically provide a better experience or value compared to the Lego set.

@drewtstew said:
"Lego could lower the prices on all of their products by a huge amount, they just don't want to.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1103041/lego-gross-margin-worldwide/ "

If I had a company with such high demand and sales regularly, why would I drop prices.
Especially with high inflation and cost on raw materials, fuel, etc. for manufacturing across the board.
Lego does though give free items, replaces parts and figs regularly if damaged or missing.
I do wish Lego was cheaper too, like 10% + per set. But they're hot and selling great.

@missedoutagain said:
"Wow and I thought Batcave had alot negative comments,

1. It's a nice set but id buy original version of it.
2. Great Display piece either for gamer,pac-man fan.
3. Alot better than nintendo set. it moves.
"

The NES set moves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka68hqHUL3E

@ambr said:
"For all those who want to spend $300 on an original I remember this game was not much fun due to the lag in seconds rather than today's milli-seconds, as you would hit left or right at the turn and Pac-man would just continue straight on into a ghost, so you would just hit harder next time and leave with a really store palm. I preferred the vertical space scrollers like Xenon 2 which would work really well in Lego. "

I suspect that wasn't due to lag, rather than playing the game on an 8 way joystick. The original machine, and all of the many Arcade1Up iterations, use a 4 way stick, which is less prone to misreading the input signals. The problem is the 8 way sticks read diagonal inputs, so the game never knows whether you intend "up/down" or "left/right". Playing Pacman on a modern console with an 8 way stick is an incredibly frustrating experience, but playing on an actual arcade cabinet, original or reproduction, is a lot more fun.