We rebuilt LEGO Icons 10323 PAC-MAN Arcade, and…

If there’s ever a LEGO set to experience building again to truly appreciate and even better understand, look no further than LEGO Icons 10323 PAC-MAN Arcade.

There are certain LEGO sets that grab your attention with clever play features or unique artistry that, upon closer inspection, you can already begin to understand how they have been built. You can deconstruct with your eyes and see these parts here and those parts there, how they work together, and what the end result is.

Then there are LEGO sets that pull you in for something just as amazing, you stare at for ages, sort of recognise what you are looking at, but have no idea how it all works as it does. And then… there’s 10323 PAC-MAN Arcade. This is the sort of LEGO set that comes along once every while, shows you something amazing, baffles you as to how it’s built and even after putting it together leaves you none the wiser as to the LEGO magic that’s going on.

10323 PAC-MAN Arcade is a LEGO set that takes something iconic and eye-catching like a well-loved arcade game franchise, translates it into a remarkable and one-of-a-kind LEGO build with unexpected working functions, draws you in to study it and try to work out what on earth the designers have done to achieve it all, which of course you can’t do, and even after building it leaves you bewildered as to how it works as effortlessly and amazingly as it does.

We’re not saying that this is an overly complex build that is at a level most of us cannot work through – it’s as accessible as any of the other advanced 18+ Icons sets of the past couple of years. It is also a precise build with various Technic parts and gears used along the way, and one that requires full concentration at every step.

It will also have you thinking after you’ve put it altogether that – of course – there is no other way that this could be built and yet also, you’ll sit there still perplexed as to how all those logical and now obvious ideas were dreamt up by the LEGO design team and that they all come together so well as to create this working model, within that fine of a detailed maze, angled upright just as the real arcade screen was, built inside a slim but effective casing just like the real thing.

It’s confusing, baffling, wonderous and enjoyable all at once and is one of those LEGO sets you may just be better off not worrying too much about the ‘how’ before moving on to the ‘play’.

And while there are a handful of hands-on play features at work in LEGO Icons 10323 PAC-MAN Arcade (the light brick to highlight where to enter change, the somewhat moveable joystick, the internal mini-build with minifigure and the twizzling big builds of Pac-Man and the two ghosts), it’s the core function operated via the handle to the right of the model that is where this model and that build amaze.

After creating the maze in all its glory – in a way that your eyes have no choice but to accept this as the very same game you’ve played a thousand times before, from the black and blue walls and little illuminated dots to the ‘power pellets’, ghosts and the titular character himself – turning that handle actually moves Pac-Man and two of the ghosts (in our case, Blinky and Pinky) to run around a section of the course, just like the real game.

Separately, a third ghost (Inky) moves on its own smaller course around the maze, and separately again the fourth ghost (Clyde) moves side to side as they wait to exit the central box.

That’s three individual movements that continuously circulate as you turn the one handle on the side. It’s a smooth, easy movement that sees the model come to life in a way that from a LEGO perspective is truly one-of-a-kind and from a play perspective instantly transports you back to playing the real game.

Indeed, even though 10323 PAC-MAN Arcade isn’t a functioning arcade game (and the official product listing goes to great lengths to make that clear) this single play feature is so effortless and effective in its application that you’d have a hard time believing so. 

It’s a highlight set from 2023 and one that continually sells well (indeed, it’s on back order until 2024 now), particularly for how, as with our top LEGO set of 2023 – 77015 Temple of the Golden Idol – it offers everything that an adult fan of LEGO would dream of, and throws in a play feature that is so good and incredibly addictive that it takes age out of the equation. The smartest LEGO sets for adults have you unashamedly playing with them just the same as when you first got into LEGO.

10323 PAC-MAN Arcade may be super confusing to try to work out what’s going on under the hood, but it very much has us coming back to it again and again.

This copy of LEGO Icons 10323 PAC-MAN Arcade was provided by the LEGO Group.

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