By: Megan Rothrock
Photography by Megan Rothrock
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It really doesn’t matter what part of the world you live in, you will at some point in your childhood most likely have had the chance to ride on a magical horse that went round and round and up and down in a circle. I must confess that I have been fascinated by carousels and their history since I was a child so from the first moment I saw The Grand Carousel, I had to build it!! The building experience was a very interesting one, and not quite as I expected it to be. |
The color scheme is very nice; it’s bright, but not too bright with a
lot of detail. One of the things I found to be very nice is that it has
all of the functions of a real Carousel. The mechanism you build is
exactly the same as an actual carousel, for me, this also adds to the
nostalgia of this LEGO set. I also found it very cool that even the
battery box is hidden way underneath the operators’ control stand.
This set is really BIG – when you see it on the box, you don’t really see where all of the 3,263 LEGO pieces go into it. However, there is a lot more to this set than what you initially think!!
After I tipped out all of the content on the table in big pile I began to ‘twin’ up the bags, which made it easier to find the pieces. Unfortunately, the sticker sheet was a bit bent and scratched when I took it out of the box. But that didn’t affect them putting them on the model, and they look great!
The Loot
It seems there has been a lot of consideration for pieces that AFOLs would like to have, some to note are:
96 dark red 1×2 4 high inverted slopes
80 dark blue jumper plates
64 transparent white jewels
32 1×3 dark blue slopes
18 gold crystals
8 jester hats
8 Belville gold dishes
8 tan beards
1 gold flag
It is a challenging build. It was developed for ages 16+ and it is definitely more suited for an experienced builder. When you build it, you need to have a nice clear table. There are more than 25 bags and a LEGO Power Functions motor, battery box, new sound brick, and two instruction books and includes 9 minifigures too!
The Grand Carousel sits on a 48×48 green base plate (the first time this baseplate has been available in green), with just enough room to place some minifigures around the edge of the plate to wait for their turn to ride. When I started to build, it reminded me of the LEGO sets from the 1970’s and 80’s that required you to count out stud by stud where to place your bricks. Once the tiles and jumper plates were down in the right place I was away.
Around and around
This set requires focus, and I don’t advise to speed through it or skip ahead in the instructions, if you do you’ll find yourself having to go back and fix things. While there is a lot of apparent repetition it’s best to follow the instructions when building the circles and NOT to double up on the builds of these sections since there are a lot of left and right sides involved. There are some nice techniques to creating strength for the center pier, and it is cleverly built on jumper plates so you can remove it if you drop a piece down inside or have to make adjustments to anything.
To apply the decals (stickers) takes a bit of time I used an exacto-blade under the corner of the decal to set it onto the brick and not my fingers. This also helped not to get finger prints on the gold parts too.
There are a lot of nice details to this set from the brick-built horses to the jester heads (with happy to grouchy faces) to the upside down beards used as intricate carved elements. There is a new sound brick that plays a specially created and very happy carousel tune! When the model is completed it’s very fun to play with and is even made it so you can easily turn the sound on and off for displaying at LEGO events. Turn this on and watch peoples eyes light up, as the horses go around and around, and up and down!
My only nit pick (if I need to make one) is that it would have been nice to have the top of the carrousel be detachable so you could quickly and easily show someone the amazing way it all functions. However the sail is a new part, a new size and type of shape and it’s in white so the Pirate fans out there could build quite a nice fleet of Pirate ships with them!
At times I began to feel like an old Carousel Master Craftsman, building copy after copy of a section or chipping away at the horses. It made me consider the amount of time the original craftsmen must have spent on the classic carousels to carve all of the horses and decorations out of wood!
In conclusion it’s a fun and challenging build, with a lot of nice pieces, some interesting building techniques, great functions, is good value for the money (249.99 USD) and good fun to operate. I think for any AFOL that would like to add something fun and unique to their town, show at a LEGO event, or just build and leave it out for you guests to marvel at it’s a ‘must have’. It is quite a conversation piece and has sparked some great discussions about LEGO sets and building techniques with our non-AFOL friends in our house since I finished it.
More photos:
Cam detail.
Bottom construction.
Ring construction.
You can order a Grand Carousel here or buy it at a LEGO Brand Retail Store.
Many thanks to Megan for her review and the LEGO Group for the set!
Categories:
LEGO LEGO Power Functions Public Reviews
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David Mayer said, Wed Jul 15 20:51:42 UTC 2009:
Good review, bang on IMO. My nit pick is the attachment of the sails at the center piece don't always stay connected. While I'm nitpicking, I should add that my stickers were mangled on arrival, and the sound brick had bad batteries. One was bulging and had leaked. Interestingly, the polarity of this battery was reversed. I wish TLG would package the flat bits (stickers, manuals, sails) more carefully, perhaps in an envelope with a stiffener.
One small thing about your build. The white uprights with the gold stickers actually go under/behind the red arches at the top, making a more finished look to the center.
