The LEGO Ideas team is ticking another nostalgia powerhouse off the list with 21369 The X-Files, courtesy of veteran fan designer Brent Waller, and from top to bottom (quite literally) there’s a lot to love here – but also one very big sticking point.
Based on a design submitted to the ‘90s edition of LEGO Ideas’ ‘Twist of Nostalgia’ challenge, 21369 The X-Files serves up a striking composition that aims to capture the vibes of the original TV series above all else. No, Mulder’s office isn’t situated beneath a forest floor, but you can easily forgive both Brent and the Ideas team taking a little artistic licence here, because the result just looks really cool.
There are shades of 76417 Gringotts Wizarding Bank to it too, both from a design and build perspective. Putting together the top half is a markedly different experience to the bottom half (just like the bank and vaults), and then the UFO is something novel all over again (as was the dragon).
Detail is the order of the day from start to finish, but concentrated mostly in the office, where references to the TV show litter the walls, achieved through a combination of (pleasingly few) stickers, new prints and existing decorated elements.
That office, by the way, is where the biggest hit in size can be felt between the original submission and the finished set – and there are a good 600 pieces between them. But it’s a logical shift that puts the office closer to minifigure scale (in Brent’s original submission, the walls towered above the characters), without losing any of the intention behind the design. This is still a cluttered and compact space that’s fun to build and just as enjoyable to place minifigures in.
And while it may be a good deal smaller than the proposed design, 21369 The X-Files still retains everything unique and interesting about Brent’s concept model, then builds on it too. The forest still feels dense, and the trees look great even if they’re a bit repetitive to put together; the beam of light that supports the UFO swaps in sturdier (if smaller) Technic elements; and the spacecraft itself is an achievement in LEGO geometry, triangles and intelligent parts usage (including three chrome gold minifigure rings).
Better still, the set can split apart into three sections for a little more control over how you display it. Don’t fancy casting the office into darkness, or are resolute that it shouldn’t be underground? Simply pop off the forest and display them side by side. Want just a slice of this set on your desk? The bulk of the office floor slides out from the rest of the model. That one feels a little less useful – the walls are what make it – but someone might find a use case for it. You never know.
The result is a model that feels like a creative tribute to The X-Files rather than capturing a specific scene from the show – a wise choice for a series that doesn’t really lend itself to a LEGO theme in the same way as something like Star Wars or Marvel – and that’s borne out too in the minifigure selection.
Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are obviously the stars of the show, but they’re not necessarily the standouts in 21369 The X-Files, save perhaps for Scully’s brand new hairpiece. It’s pretty much spot on for her hairstyle in the series’ earlier seasons, and though she more commonly wore dark suits rather than the brown one depicted here, it offers a nice contrast to Mulder’s navy threads.
The designers say they picked the rest of the line-up based on which characters ‘people remember’, and which ‘had the most influence on the main characters’. Walter Skinner, a grey alien and the Syndicate Leader – here renamed Carl Busch, but perhaps better known as the Cigarette Smoking Man (that name didn’t make the cut for obvious reasons) – have all survived the design process from Brent’s original submission, but we have three brand new antagonists in place of the Jersey Devil and Eugene Tooms.
Those are the Flukeman, Mr. X and Alex Krycek, and it’s hard to argue with any of them – they’re just as iconic as the characters Brent proposed for different reasons, and the Flukeman in particular feels so out of left field for both the LEGO Group and from a minifigure design perspective that it would have been a shame not to see him here. Krycek’s alternate face print with the black oil infection is spot on, and the grey alien feels like a genuine improvement over the Collectible Minifigures version initially suggested.
You may be missing Eugene Tooms in particular and that’s fair, but with so many seasons of the show to consider it was inevitable that not everyone’s favourite characters would find their way into the set. And eight minifigures feels about right for the size of the set… if not the price.
21369 The X-Files includes 1,478 pieces and retails for £179.99 in the UK, $199.99 in the US and €199.99 in Europe. That amount of money would also get you 75417 AT-ST Walker, 71872 Ultra Dragon Battle, 72152 Pikachu and Poké Ball or 31220 Claude Monet – Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies, to give a few examples. The amount of LEGO you’re getting here doesn’t really feel in lockstep with any of those except the AT-ST, and that set’s packing the Star Wars tax.
The X-Files is a 20th Century Fox TV show that’s now owned by Disney, so maybe the price makes sense from that perspective, but it doesn’t make it easier to justify. This really feels not much bigger in scope than 21350 Jaws, another nostalgia-fuelled LEGO Ideas set that includes 1,497 pieces and retails for £129.99 / $149.99 / €149.99. Sure, there are five more minifigures here, but £140 or even £130 would have made 21369 The X-Files an easy day one recommendation.
At £179.99, it’s not quite so simple. You could wait to see if it lands at other retailers (not always guaranteed for Ideas sets) and gets a discount of some sort further down the line. But chances are if you’ve already got your eye on this one, you’ll probably also want 40896 The X-Files: Scully’s Lab, a day-one gift-with-purchase available exclusively with 21369 The X-Files.
Those two sets side by side feels a little more like £180 worth of LEGO (though not entirely), but then that sort of removes the whole ‘gift’ bit from the equation. It’s a shame, because as an artistic interpretation of The X-Files and an ode to the core themes of the series, 21369 The X-Files absolutely hits the spot. We just need to solve the mystery of its price tag first.
This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.
Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your LEGO using our affiliate links – thanks.
Comments
Be the first to comment!