Review: 40634 Icons of Play
Posted by Huw,
LEGO has recently launched a campaign aimed at getting girls to 'Play Unstoppable', teaming up with four world-class female football players to help get the message across.
40634 Icons of Play, which includes the women in minifigure form, has been produced to coincide with the campaign, and it will be available in a few days' time.
Summary
40634 Icons of Play, 899 pieces.
£89.99 / $99.99 / €99.99 | 10.0p/11.1c/11.1c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A truly bizarre set that's neither fun to play with nor attractive to display
- Good selection of skin-toned minifigures
- Flourescent yellow footballs
- Mechanism in the supporter's stand does not work very well
- Multiple instances of incomprehensible design choices
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Minifigures
The set contains 15 minifigures, the four female players, three other professionals, and eight supporters.
The players are, from left to right:
- American Olympian Megan Rapinoe
- Japanese national team player Yuki Nagasato who's also a striker for the Chicago Red Stars
- Australian Sam Kerr who plays for her national team and Chelsea
- Nigerian Asisat Oshoala who plays for her country and FC Barcelona
All four are attired in a red team kit, the front of which is the same as that found in 21337 Table Football.
Their backs, however, are printed with their names and numbers.
They all have dual-sided heads and some additional wigs are provided.
The three other professionals, a team manager, goalkeeper and referee, are not named but the former bears more than a passing resemblance to England manager Sarina Wiegman (according to CapnRex101!)
The goalie's torso is reused from the table football set, the ref's is new.
The eight supporters are attired in a variety of outfits, including two more red team kits, two blue team kits and an orange goalkeeper's kit.
They have a variety of skin tones, all have dual-sided heads, and I believe some of the wigs are new.
They are equipped with accessories including an acoustic guitar, ratchet, loudhailer, ice cream, and flags.
The completed model
The model consists of five unconnected subassemblies: half a pitch, a supporter's stand, a dugout, trophy award stand and a plate with cones and a crate of water bottles mounted upon it.
Although the players are all wearing red, two are on red bases and two on blue which suggests some sort of team play, so that begs the question, why don't two of them have blue team kits?
Play, if you can call it that, consists of picking up a player and attempting to push the ball in the goal with it, while your opponent tries to stop you doing so by moving the goalkeeper from side to side.
The pitch incorporates a VAR camera in the corner and screen by the goal post. The goal incorporates a mechanism to move an attached goalie from side-to-side.
The most exciting aspect of the set, from a GBC builder's perspective, is that it includes two footballs in vibrant yellow, a colour introduced last year. These will make excellent 'tracer balls' among the usual orange and white ones used in GBC circuits.
The grass consists of green and bright green tiles and for some bizarre reason the stripes change from horizontal to vertical half-way up the pitch, so it looks a bit of a mess. The odd patches of red along the sides look strange, too, and it all appears a bit unfinished and rushed.
The dugout provides five seats for the manager and others, although they can not all be used at once due to the width of minifigures. The use of two colours of green plate looks a bit odd here, too. An umbrella is provided, so presumably the football ground is somewhere in England :-)
The structure in which the trophy is awarded features attractive semicircular steps in front of it.
The player's water bottles are stashed in a crate alongside some cones used in training sessions on a 6x6 bright green plate.
The most elaborate part of the model is a huge supporters' stand, which seems way out of proportion with the rest of the set. There's a scoreboard incorporated into it, and floodlights at the top.
Within the large base is a mechanism that is supposed to cause the fans to bob up and down when you turn the handle, but it doesn't work particularly well because there's too much friction between the assemblies on which the figures are mounted and the holes that they are slotted into.
The outside pair work fairly well, but the inner two encounter too much friction from the walls inside the mechanism.
Verdict
This is certainly a strange set, particularly coming so soon after the poorly received 21337 Table Football. It neither offers any play value nor looks good on display: sets comprising disparate unconnected subassemblies rarely do, and the grass/plate pattern of the pitch makes even that look ugly.
Too much emphasis, and parts, have been spent on the gimmicky supporter's stand, but unfortunately it fails to actually work, so they have been wasted.
The vibrant yellow balls and the minifigure selection are really the only things it has going for it, especially as they offer a diverse range of skin tones and wigs. It's unfortunate though that, once again, the players do not have dual-moulded arms and legs to better portray short sleeves and shorts.
This may well find an audience among young girls with an interest in football, but I suspect the rest of us will look at it merely as a collection of desirable minifigures and await the inevitable price reduction before buying it.
I hope it succeeds in its aim of encouraging girls to Play Unstoppable, but I do wish a bit more thought had gone into it.
The 899-piece set will be available at LEGO.com from 6th June, priced at €99.99 / $99.99 / £89.99
103 likes
63 comments on this article
This seems like such a weird set, not only the choice to do it in the first place, but after reading the review it seems like there's a lot of weird going on. It's not a play set, and it's not a display set. Seems like it was designed by committee.
Not a set i'll be interested in buying (at full price at least) but I can see this one getting a nice discount soon.
It is certainly an odd set with no consistency. Two of the fans (in blue) support the opposition (that consists of one goalkeeper)? The stickers have teams playing in completely different coloured kits to what anyone is wearing.
I’m torn. My daughter is a Chelsea fan and we have watched them win league and cup this season- a fantastic team. I had thought this a Day 1 purchase given the inclusion of the Sam Kerr minifig, but the odd design puts me off. Will almost certainly wait now until a discount, unless there is an attractive GWP to tempt me to pay full price. A shame.
I like sports but they keep missing the mark. If I was lego I would look at the old sports sets to see what made them so great.
I do wish they would bring back the Sport theme. Not only could they incorporate so many sets that sit in other themes (City Skate Park and Ski Slope for example), but also it would allow them to fully commit to a set like this.
Give us a full pitch and some generic players to fill out the set alongside the stars, and it would be a great football set.
Strange set. Half a football pitch, half a team and some other fairly random unconnected structures.
Is LEGO looking to compete with Subbuteo?
Reminds me of the ‘assault on hoth’ set and the half AT-ST set.
This should sell well.
What an ugly miss-match of a set
Imagine going to a match and ending up beside the guy who brought a guitar.
That is one expensive minifigure pack. Many battle packs have better builds than this.
@Huw How do you think the set compares to the classic football set 3425?
Early 2000s was peak LEGO soccer - they should strive to emulate those! Yeah they had some big pieces for the field, but they worked. It was fun to play with! Plus small $10-$20 sets for stands, lights, buses, field add-ons, etc made collecting fun
I'm surprised to notice that two of the supporters have torso designs that originate in the Harry Potter theme; the blonde guy and the woman next to him sport the same outfits as Harry and Hermione in Deathly Hallows Part 2. I thought that printed minifigure parts from licensed themes rarely resurfaced outside of the theme that they were designed for? (with the exception of generic enough faces, I guess.)
I mean, I guess both of them are suitably normal outfits with nothing to specifically tie them to the IP; but still, it feels like an unusual occurrence to me.
Just like the foosball table, I look at this set as largely a figure pack with a bunch of "fluff" to make it seem like a premium item. Plus, you have hardly any play value compared to the old Sports theme. Heck, I didn't even have any of the sets, just an NBA figure pack, and I thought the spring-action to allow them to shoot goals was pretty neat.
I would buy 2 at half price, or just Bricklink the parts and start from scratch. It feels like this should have been only an Ideas Book exploration.
My soccer obsessed 8 year old who idolizes Megan Rapinoe is so excited by this set so she will be getting it on day one.
Remember the Soccer line we had in the 90's? This falls so low compared to that.
Nice set, but I really think they should have included Marta as one of the players too.
Only a big maybe for me if it goes on sale.
I know this is a predominantly-female-centred set (which, I hasten to add, I 100% applaud and appreciate), and that one of the minifigs does indeed look a lot like Netherlands-born England Women's National Team manager Sarina Wiegman, but the presence of the umbrella on the dugout, makes me wish they'd added a minifig of Steve McClaren (i.e. 'the wally with the brolly').
@gunther_schnitzel said:
"Imagine going to a match and ending up beside the guy who brought a guitar. "
Bring back the vuvuzela. All is forgiven!
@gunther_schnitzel said:
"Strange set. Half a football pitch, half a team and some other fairly random unconnected structures.
Is LEGO looking to compete with Subbuteo?
Reminds me of the ‘assault on hoth’ set and the half AT-ST set.
This should sell well.
"
Oh, it will once it goes on 50 percent discount.
I don't even think the minifigures will be that sought after. The 4 with names on are good if you know who they are but not great if you want their actual teams, and cannot be used as a generic red team.
Don’t think conveniently diverse minifigure heads will save this one.
Definitely seems rushed and very strange after reading this review… one that will surely hit at least 40% on Lego.com soon
For all this set's faults, at least it has a realistic amount of spectators >:-)
Lego would get so rich of Premier League sets...
Or just bring back the sports theme entirely.
@person_that_uses_brickset said:
"I like sports but they keep missing the mark. If I was lego I would look at the old sports sets to see what made them so great."
For 3409 it was definitely playability!!
@GenericLegoFan said:
"Lego would get so rich of Premier League sets..."
I don't even want to imagine the licensing costs
As some have said before, a minifig pack with some disappointing side builds. And not even that strong a minifig pack, considering they don't look like football players at all. Ironically the stickers on the grandstand do show Lego seems to know what football players look like. Just one of the many weird design choices....
Also kind of weird that the two continents where football is the most popular aren't represented among the players, though the manager indeed does resemble Sarina Wiegman. Or was this intentional? After all, I guess at these two continents the gap between mens and womens football is probably the biggest.
But what surprises me most is while football is the biggest sport in the world, Lego seemingly has no clue how to convert that into a good Lego set. Sure, the stadiums were impressive, but because of their price, size and the fact they are for specific clubs, very much niche products that even at very high discounts are difficult to sell. The football table could have been a fun set, but is marred by some questionable design choices and a absurd price. And now this....
Meanwhile Playmobil just makes a bunch of unnamed players in the outfits of numerous countries and a stadium that offers actual play value, and those seem to be selling quite well. Just keep it simple....
@person_that_uses_brickset said:
"I like sports but they keep missing the mark. If I was lego I would look at the old sports sets to see what made them so great."
Agreed, the new 41744: Sports Centre at least has a playable field where you can do various sport duels with Soccer, Basketball and Tennis.
The thing that made the old sports sets so great was the playability, but also expandability , with small sets to have various training , to even suggesting combining multiple sets to have a 4 player soccer field in the insturctions.
I’m a Seattleite, so I feel somewhat obligated to pick up the Rapinoe minifig, but otherwise what a mess of a set this is…
@Vladtheb said:
"I’m a Seattleite, so I feel somewhat obligated to pick up the Rapinoe minifig, but otherwise what a mess of a set this is…"
That's what Bricklink is for.
@Vladtheb said:
"I’m a Seattleite, so I feel somewhat obligated to pick up the Rapinoe minifig, but otherwise what a mess of a set this is…"
I doff my hat to thee, neighbor.
@Huw : great insight and review.
Megan Rapinoe's club is OL Reign. You should add it to be consistent.
The set has a lot of interesting pieces. Yet, poorly thought out set and graphic design. What should have been a celebration now merely epitomizes the corporate support for the women's game- fitful, brief, and not well-planned.
Perhaps the set designers were trying to capture the current struggles of Rapinoe's team to find an adequate field and training facility in the Puget Sound area?
Very sad, but clearly sparks a lot of potential.
The worst bit about the set is the inclusion of VAR. :p
Pretty disgusting they want to squeeze another 100 bucks out of people who want a full field, when they just could've left out the stands and completed the green. But instead they make people buy two and you don't even get 2 full teams for kids to play with.
Extremely scummy for LEGO to do this, especially since the goal is to be inclusive with this set. How inclusive is it to offer crap to people?
I can understand Lego giving the players full red and blue legs for the foosball table as the actual tables frequently have monochrome players, however doing the same in this set just seems lazy: after all they are trying to represent players in an actual soccer field who almost always wear shorts during the games (sometimes goalies don't). In this set it looks like they are playing in training gear as opposed to actual uniforms.
I'm not really into even a hypothetical better version of this set, but I have to admit I'm intrigued by vibrant yellow soccer balls.
Icons of 40% off
@Ephseb said:
" @GenericLegoFan said:
"Lego would get so rich of Premier League sets..."
I don't even want to imagine the licensing costs"
They did make the stadium for Manchester united
The spectator box is more interesting than the rest of the set.
No.
@cody6268 said:
" Just like the foosball table, I look at this set as largely a figure pack with a bunch of "fluff" to make it seem like a premium item. "
This is arguably the opposite of the foosball table. That was a set for a particular play item that presumably couldn't justify the price they'd set for the concept (which was going to be much bigger), so they padded it out with minifigures.
This set is arguably all about the four named players, and they've padded it out with stuff like the builds.
I think this would be much more successful if it was a full playing field with as many named players as possible, like the old basketball set with all NBA stars. But, we don't know if LEGO approached more players for this and couldn't get more sign-offs in time.
Imagine spending 100 euro on a set that's not even a full field. And you do end up paying for a weird spectator bobbing mechanism.
And I thought the table football set was missing the mark. This makes that look like a conceptually flawless masterpiece.
At least the trophy podium looks nice and you do get 15 minifigs.
It's weird, just like the old sports sets were.
A shame it’s so poorly-designed, I loved the concept, looked to be the closest thing we’d get to another 2000s soccer/football set.
@Huw - Regarding the stands mechanism, are you sure you've installed the cams right? I presume what you describe as "bob up and down" really is supposed to look like they're doing "the wave" - I don't know what the instructions say but I believe it may look better if the axle is moved to the next hole in each cam piece (the one that's the center of the thick end), so each figure holder appears stationary for half the cycle before rising up.
Edit: Using the hole at the thin end may have a similar effect with more pronounced rising up, but may worsen the sticking/jamming issues. Anyway, a video could be useful to see it in action.
This set actually makes the foosball table set look good…which I didn’t think was possible. At least that one has display and play value…I won’t buy either of the sets, but I’d rather pick up the foosball set at 40% off than this at 40% off…
@gunther_schnitzel said:
"Reminds me of the ‘assault on hoth’ set and the half AT-ST set."
Funny, that's exactly what came to my mind immediately too.
It's the same kind of mess of a set.
Like someone on the design team took the Football Table set and said to the team
"Take this and try to make it even worse."
Why are they playing in pyjamas anyway?
And why are some of the supporters dressed as if it's summer, and others as if it's freezing cold winter?
I truly wonder which girl will be inspired and motivated in any way by this set.
If one is a fan of one or more of the main female players they can just buy them separately on Bricklink or eBay without having to get this set at all.
@AustinPowers said:
"
Why are they playing in pyjamas anyway?
And why are some of the supporters dressed as if it's summer, and others as if it's freezing cold winter?
"
These are tracksuits, not pyjamas. And all the figs are dressed for spring/fall weather. I presume you think of the scarfs when talking about freezing cold winter, but scarfs are typical for football fans. But all this makes this set not less absurdly bad. It's the worst of the year so far, no doubt for me.
@axeleng , the end hole is the one used in the instructions.
"Flourescent yellow" - where's spell-check when you need it? ;-)
If they'd have included an Earps minifig, my eldest would be insisting on this set.
I have to admit, I'm not familiar with the Nigerian player (that may change during July) but the other three are definitely iconic.
Not fussed by the builds (& may have access to some of the older football sets) so Bricklink is a likely destination for me
Seems like they were quickly trying to make a set to make up for the poorly received table football, but still couldn’t make something decent.
@Duq said:
""Flourescent yellow" - where's spell-check when you need it? ;-)"
Busy baking, perhaps.
I don't think it looks too bad, but I'm not sure that a Venn diagram of Lego fans and football fans has a particularly large intersection.
@AliveAndBricking said:
"Bring back the vuvuzela. All is forgiven!"
During the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, I knew people who passed up tickets to attend the games because the crowd with vuvuzelas were so loud, you couldn't enjoy the game. almost the whole crowd had them!
Looks like Netflix adaptation of 2000s LEGO soccer theme
@thor96 said:
" @AustinPowers said:
"
Why are they playing in pyjamas anyway?
And why are some of the supporters dressed as if it's summer, and others as if it's freezing cold winter?
"
These are tracksuits, not pyjamas."
Even if they're tracksuits, since when is football (men or women) played in tracksuits? Like, ever?
I have been watching European soccer league matches for decades (both sexes, various countries), as well as European and World Cup, Champions' League etc, and never have any of them been playing in anything but shorts and short-sleeved shirts.
What kind of soccer are they trying to portray here?
And of course I know that scarfs are part of soccer fan attire. I've got several myself. But the figures overall still look like it's winter.
Looks like a set designed by a committee, mismatch of builds and mechanisms added at price points. Absolute shame as they could of done so much more better for the remarkable players featured here.
As the review indicated, the GBC community is the main benefactor out of this leading candidate so far for the worst set of the year awards.
Out of 65 comments so far, I see one stating a day one buy or purchase without discount.
Despite the success of Friends, LEGO still finds a way to make cynical, low-effort sets for girls. Belleville lives on, I guess.
With half a pitch, I figured they'd want you to buy two for the whole one...but they really should have included half the red team and half the blue team so that when you get two you'd have two separate teams. I mean, this seems like really obvious thing to do for the soccer/football fans who would want to do so...but they didn't, so they likely lost many, many potential second-set sales.
Seems like a few tweaks like this could have made this a really nice set, but they missed the mark by spending time on things like the stands.
Lego, what were you thinking?