Sagrada Família Lego set
LEGO’s new 12,000‑piece Sagrada Família set, priced around $800, is prompting debate over whether such massive, highly detailed models are inspiring works of art or repetitive, space‑hogging collectibles. Commenters weigh the trade-offs between adult-oriented, instruction-heavy “display pieces” and the open-ended creativity of mixed brick boxes, with some seeing these builds as therapeutic hobbies and others as mindless, expensive puzzles. Price and value are dissected via cost-per-piece metrics, comparisons to cheaper clone brands and rental services, and even the alternative of spending the same money to visit the real basilica in Barcelona.
Build Experience & Design
- Many expect the build to be highly repetitive (thousands of similar pillars/spires), potentially “not fun”; others compare it to meditative, repetitive crafts (knitting, origami) and enjoy that aspect.
- Some worry it lacks enough detail to capture Gaudí’s style; others argue designers are constrained by cost, size, and playability, and 12k pieces is already a compromise.
- Several note the instructions reportedly mirror the real basilica’s construction phases, which some find clever and historically interesting.
What to Do With It Once Built
- One camp treats large sets as display pieces or souvenirs of the building experience, often describing the process as relaxing or therapeutic.
- Another camp questions the point: fragile, space-hungry, hard to move or disassemble, offering limited long-term satisfaction.
- Some builders disassemble big sets and feed the pieces into a general parts bin; critics counter that modern sets use more specialized shapes, though others say LEGO has moved away from many single-purpose parts.
Creativity vs. “One-Design” Kits
- Several commenters lament that modern high-end sets encourage instruction-following rather than free building.
- Many push back, saying kids still mix sets into a big box and build original creations; “the problem” is often parental insistence on keeping sets intact.
- People highlight 3‑in‑1 and “alternate builds” as creativity-friendly, and note third-party sites that provide many alternate models per set.
Price, Value, and Competitors
- The $800 price draws criticism and jokes (cheaper to fly to see the real building; must ship unfinished to be “authentic”).
- Others note the per-piece cost (~$0.06) is actually low by LEGO standards and argue high-quality molding and instructions are expensive.
- Multiple commenters mention cheaper Chinese-compatible brands and argue LEGO’s manufacturing moat is shrinking; some AFOLs do buy these alternatives, especially when LEGO lacks similar sets.
- There’s debate over whether LEGO’s pricing is “highway robbery” or roughly inflation-consistent.
Miscellaneous
- Jokes about build time scaling with the real basilica (decades or centuries), missing final pieces, and future “expansion packs.”
- Mentions of LEGO subscription/rental services and LED modifications to large models.
- Side debates: proper plural of “LEGO,” and whether following instructions is akin to a “color-by-numbers” hobby.