10323 PAC-MAN Arcade’s repetitive feature is ‘better experience’

LEGO Icons 10323 PAC-MAN Arcade’s working maze is impressive but repetitive and the design team decided it made for a better experience. 

10323 PAC-MAN Arcade’s impressive functional maze uses a 3D design for the pellets by placing bars in Technic pins and attaching them to two giant boards. As noted in the online instructions manual and our review, you’ll need to repeat this process 64 times. It’s an exceedingly repetitive process and one that can take away from the overall building experience after the first 20. 

In a recent roundtable interview with designer Sven Franic, Brick Fanatics learned that the team didn’t try any alternatives to counteract this, even stickers or prints. 

“We didn’t have an interpretation with stickers, or prints but in the end, there was this connection between the pixel grid and local grid, and I just thought it was a great fit,” explained Franic. 

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“We looked at how we could use just one-by-one round tiles and rounded plates for power pellets and I just thought brick building them, despite having a lot of repetition would be a better experience.” 

“It’s funny because when you look at it, it doesn’t seem like there’s that many pellets. But yeah, I know that when you build it 64 sounds like a lot.” 

This repetitive process almost caused a significant change to the instructions manual for 10323 PAC-MAN. 

“We discussed it also with the building instructions specialist, whether we should try and spread out that build process throughout the model. And I think they decided that it was actually better to just build it all at once.” 

This idea, while good in theory, would mean returning to the maze multiple times throughout the build, moving the point to which it can be added to the cabinet further back and pausing the final part of the build. 

At the end of the day, the design team decided to stick with the 64 pellet builds and while it is an unfortunate aspect of the experience, 10323 PAC-MAN is still a fun and detailed model that is available now for £229.99 / $269.99 / €269.99. 

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Author Profile

Jack Yates
Jack Yates
LEGO has been a part of my life ever since I was young. It all started when my brother passed down 7657 AT-ST to me. It’s guided me through my early years, through school and eventually through my degree in journalism. I still have all my collection proudly on display, including my many NINJAGO sets, my favourite of all the LEGO Group’s themes. Outside of Brick Fanatics I am an avid gamer and enjoy a good game of Dungeons & Dragons.

Jack Yates

LEGO has been a part of my life ever since I was young. It all started when my brother passed down 7657 AT-ST to me. It’s guided me through my early years, through school and eventually through my degree in journalism. I still have all my collection proudly on display, including my many NINJAGO sets, my favourite of all the LEGO Group’s themes. Outside of Brick Fanatics I am an avid gamer and enjoy a good game of Dungeons & Dragons.

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