LEGO for Adults 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona review

10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona is a LEGO for Adults set that faithfully captures the splendour and spirit of Barcelona’s iconic stadium.

Following on from 2020’s impressive 10272 Old Trafford – Manchester United is the newly-christened LEGO for Adults theme’s second mammoth microscale stadium build, 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona. Designed in generally the same way, this latest sports venue set is a fitting tribute to the truly unique home of one of football’s largest and most successful clubs.

Piercing the grid-like structure of the surrounding streets of Barcelona with its huge oval shape coloured inside with vibrant blue and red seating, Camp Nou towers as a cathedral of sport over – and for – not only its city, but the entire region of Catalonia. It is here where for over six decades (and only interrupted by the pandemic) more than 90,000 fans have shuffled into the ground every week to worship La Blaugrana (blue and reds).

Image source: fcbarcelona Instagram

Camp Nou is a stadium that has borne witness to some of club football’s most revered and decorated teams, and celebrated some of the game’s most gifted stars. Written into its history are names like Johan Cruyff, who brought a Dutch footballing philosophy to Barcelona that is still followed to this day; any number of foreign greats like Diego Maradona, Hristo Stoichkov, Michael Laudrup, Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho; and, held with such pride, youth team graduates from La Masia who among others include Pep Guardiola, Carles Puyol, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi.

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Camp Nou has boasted the Ballon d’Or winner a record 12 times and played home to many great Barca teams, including one so good they were nicknamed the Dream Team, and then another after that widely debated as not only better, but quite possibly the best ever to have played the game.

Written on the seats of Camp Nou’s east stand are the words of the club’s motto, ‘Més que un Club’ (More than a Club), reflective of ideals that resonate through the club’s ownership structure (where club Presidents are elected and 144,000 members each have a vote); that on the pitch speaks to the pursuit of results but never at the expense of style of play; and that are in the club’s various directives to promote equality and awareness away from the pitch, too.

Tied to Catalonia’s traditions that include its own language and culture, Barcelona is a more politicised club than most others and has previously (and quite recently) found itself a focal point for the region’s search for autonomy from Spain. Even if its official position is one of neutrality, there are any number of examples of the respect the club pays to its local community and region, from communicating everything in media in Catalan (alongside Spanish and international languages), to incorporating the colours and design of the Catalan flag into more than one away kit design.

In good times and in bad, Barca is a club with an identity like no other, one that is connected to its people in such a unique way, and one that presents Camp Nou as more than just a football stadium of architectural wonder, but a home like no other.

With that in mind, if you’re going to follow up putting an English football stadium packed with the history and tradition of Old Trafford into LEGO form (read our review here), there’s perhaps no better location to visit than Camp Nou.

— Set details —

Theme: LEGO for Adults Set name: 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona Release: September 1, 2021

Price: £299.99 / $349.99 / €329.99 Pieces: 5,509 Minifigures: 0

LEGO: Available now

— Build —

From a LEGO perspective, Camp Nou is architecturally a fascinating subject matter to study, and one that makes 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona a very interesting model, in shape, design and colour. All that is immediately obvious in the set that sits before us, just as is the fact that at first glance there are clear echoes of 10272 Old Trafford – Manchester United throughout.

From the structure and tones of the base through to particular parts and techniques used to construct the supporting framework of the stadium, and from the unique printed parts used for the football pitch and the particular way in which the seating has been built, there’s plenty that worked so well in 10272 Old Trafford – Manchester United that logically has carried over into the design of 10284 FC Barcelona Camp Nou.

That’s not to say that 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona is a carbon copy of 10272 Old Trafford – Manchester United. There’s a base template and set of construction rules that both stadiums (and presumably any more that may come) follow that provides the framework that the more expressive and individualistic elements of the respective stadiums are then built around. 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona may remind you in places of 10272 Old Trafford – Manchester United, but it’s also very much its own beast of a 5,509-piece LEGO set. (More on that later.)

Once built, that is thanks to this continued and – even though we talk about it a great deal – still underappreciated level of attention to detail that the LEGO Group brings to sets in this current era of design. Granted, the wider audience for this LEGO for Adults set may only come into this model with a broad knowledge of the subject matter. Importantly, then, if all you know of Camp Nou is the coloured seats and the general shape of the overall stadium and its four stands, and you like football and LEGO, then 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona immediately impresses.

It truly looks amazing on display, akin in size and eye-catching appeal to the biggest and best LEGO sets of recent years. It also not only holds its own with 10272 Old Trafford – Manchester United but also against other brick-built behemoths, not least of which would be 10276 Colosseum, the gigantic Architecture set that it resembles in more than a few ways. Place all three of those next to each other and you’ve got a ridiculous collection going. You’ve also got a bigger table than most of us.

Surface level, short-term impressions to one side, though, if you are after a more immersive experience that either teaches you or celebrates with you all that Camp Nou is as a home to Barcelona, as a vessel of more than six decades of unrivalled football history, and that captures all the unusual angles and subtle inflections in architecture that come together to create this one-of-a-kind stadium, then that too is all buried wonderfully within 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona.

As a display piece based on such an imposing and iconic real-world stadium, how it sits on display is crucial to its appeal, and in every way 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona impresses. It’s one of those LEGO sets that your eyes just glaze over as you take it in, and that highlights a different detail each time you look closer – it’s one to enjoy on display for a long time, if you can find the shelf space.

We have mentioned comparisons not only to 10272 Old Trafford – Manchester United but also to 10276 Colosseum and that is with purpose, both positive and negative. That is because for how much like both of those sets 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona amazes as a display model and for where it resembles 10272 Old Trafford – Manchester United in selected techniques and general approach, it also comes very close in stages to the build experience for 10276 Colosseum. And that was not so fun.

Indeed, if there’s one aspect to forewarn anyone looking to pick up 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona about, it’s to stretch out the build process or share it with someone, because each quarter of the stadium that you build is very similar to the other three, as they are all made up of a number of almost identical segments clipped together. All segments and no play makes Brick Fanatics a dull LEGO builder.

It’s not on the same level of disorientating repetition as we experienced in piecing together 10276 Colosseum – at all – but as a consequence of a) the natural shape of the real-world stadium, b) how similar that shape is to the Colosseum and c) how effective the technique used in constructing the Colosseum scales down for Camp Nou, there are parallels in the build experience, and without breaking up the process the repetition will become noticeable.

That being said, 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona benefits where 10276 Colosseum could not by offering so much more colour across the build and various other little details and variations. The repetitive segments are there to create the nucleus of the set, but there’s great fun in what you build around it, whilst the end result comes together so remarkably well that even if you were a little bored putting it together, you’ll more than forgive what’s in front of you.

You build the stadium in quarters and these wrap around the central pitch to complete the model, and whatever resentment you may feel for how long that took you, it all dissipates because what sits before you just instantly sings as a LEGO set. The contrast in colour between the exterior and interior is perfect and as vibrant as the real thing, and the sheer size of the set is as impressive as you would hope it to be.

There are so many little details included around the model too that at once both blend together to so smartly recreate Camp Nou, and still also speak to the subtle changes in direction and angle that make this stadium so unique.

— Characters —

There are no minifigures included in 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona, in line with 10272 Old Trafford – Manchester United before it and with general practice around these such sets. However, the geniuses who devise the LEGO Group’s gifts-with-purchase have produced an exclusive and no-doubt-sold-out-by-the-time-you-read-this promotional set, 40485 FC Barcelona Celebration.

That’s packed with five Barcelona fan minifigures all wearing a generic template Barcelona shirt. You can read our review here and commiserate in the comments below if it has sold out by the time you are reading this. While stylistically they don’t fit into the stadium builds, and promotionally these sorts of minifigures make for great gifts-with-purchase, including one in the actual high-cost LEGO set directly related to it wouldn’t be the worst thing moving forward.

The LEGO Group includes minifigures in the LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series sets, after all. Maybe when it does San Siro we can get a Milan and an Inter fan included somewhere.

40485 FC Barcelona Celebration is a limited edition gift-with-purchase, available September 1-12 (while stocks last) at LEGO.com and in LEGO stores with purchases of 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona.

— Price —

The LEGO Group has started a cheeky habit recently of providing sets for review purposes but not price information until much closer to embargo. In order to have these reviews ready in time for reveal, we have to put almost everything together around an upcoming LEGO set without knowing how much it will cost.

Whether intentional or not, it obscures full context for writing these reviews, be that sometimes positively or sometimes negatively. While it is something we hope the LEGO Group can move away from, in the meantime it makes for an interesting exercise for us when building and reviewing to try to guess the price and get a good sense of value when the real amount is revealed to us.

In 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona’s case, it has helped the set’s perception of value, as in considering all aspects to the set we had it pegged around the £350 mark, when in fact it will be priced at £299.99 / $349.99 / €329.99.

That’s comparative value too. Coming in at 1,611 pieces more than 2020’s 10272 Old Trafford – Manchester United, which is about a 40% increase in size, 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona is priced at just 20% more in the UK. It may not have the same degrees of variance from stand to stand that Old Trafford does, but it is sizeable, colourful and a true representation of Camp Nou.

Value or not, it’s still £300 for a box of LEGO bricks and so it will remain a price that certainly won’t be for everyone. However, for those looking for another truly unique building experience, an exceptional (and large) display piece, or more casual LEGO fans pulled in by their interest in football, 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona offers enough experience and authenticity to represent fair value.

— Pictures —

— Summary —

You don’t have to be a Barcelona fan to enjoy 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona. Nor even a football fanatic. You don’t need to have an intricate knowledge of the club’s history, its connection to its local community or an understanding of its wildly out-of-control finances to be able to take in a lot of what 10284 FC Barcelona Camp Nou rewards as a LEGO experience.

It’s one that at times if you aren’t careful will test your patience, but at the same time manages to offer intrigue, detail and enjoyment along the way, and that leaves you with a highly-impressive display piece at the end that delivers on the value you would hope to get from a LEGO set priced as it is.

Then, for anyone who is into their football, who does have more than a surface-level appreciation of the extra detail that has gone into the design here, 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona is another one of those very special LEGO sets to save up for and truly enjoy.

Bring on the next stadium next year. San Siro, please. Or any of these.

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

Directly support the work that Brick Fanatics does – and presumably also help Barcelona out of their financial pickle – by purchasing your LEGO through one of our affiliate links. Thank you!

— FAQs —

How long does it take to build LEGO for Adults 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona?

Ages. It takes an average builder around 15 hours to work through the 32 sets of numbered bags to complete building 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona. We advise breaking up the time spent building the set, or sharing the experience with someone else.

How many pieces are in LEGO for Adults 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona?

There are 5,509 pieces included in 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona, including one official mini team bus. By comparison, 10272 Old Trafford – Manchester United that released in 2020 has 3,898 pieces.

How big is LEGO for Adults 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona?

10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona is widest and longest at its base, which measures 49x46cm. Its highest point as a LEGO set measures 21cm. The real Camp Nou comes in at 48 metres tall and covers 55,000 square metres in surface.

How much does LEGO for Adults 10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona cost?

10284 Camp Nou – FC Barcelona retails in the UK at £299.99, and is priced at $349.99 in the US and from €329.99 in Europe. Last year’s 10272 Old Trafford – Manchester United retails for £249.99 / $299.99 / €269.99.

Author Profile

Rob Paton
As one half of Tiro Media Ltd, I mix a passion for print and digital media production with a deep love of LEGO and can often be found on these pages eulogising about LEGO Batman, digging deeper into the LEGO Group’s inner workings, or just complaining about the price of the latest LEGO Star Wars set. Make a great impression when you meet me in person by praising EXO-FORCE as the greatest LEGO theme of all time. Follow me on Twitter @RobPaton or drop me an email at [email protected].

Rob Paton

As one half of Tiro Media Ltd, I mix a passion for print and digital media production with a deep love of LEGO and can often be found on these pages eulogising about LEGO Batman, digging deeper into the LEGO Group’s inner workings, or just complaining about the price of the latest LEGO Star Wars set. Make a great impression when you meet me in person by praising EXO-FORCE as the greatest LEGO theme of all time. Follow me on Twitter @RobPaton or drop me an email at [email protected].

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