The new LEGO Goonies set is just about perfect. It is a LEGO Ideas set, which means that a fan pitched a proof-of-concept model, which the LEGO community voted on. After approving the set, the LEGO designers formalized an “official build” of the original idea. The fan gets a percentage of the subsequent profits – a finder’s fee or his or her contribution.
Price: $329.99Ages: 18+Pieces: 2,912Set #: 21363Dimensions: 7” width, 24” length, and 14” height
The set’s 12 minifigures account for the film’s entire main cast: Mike “Mikey” Walsh, Clark “Mouth” Devereaux, Richard “Data” Wang, Lawrence “Chunk” Cohen, Andrea “Andy” Carmichael, Stephanie “Stef” Steinbrenner, Brandon “Brand” Walsh, Sloth, Mama Fratelli, Francis Fratelli, Jake Fratelli, and One-Eyed Willy. On its outside, the set is a wreck of The Inferno, One-Eyed Willy’s ship. On the inside, it is a tribute to every major set piece in the film. This is a thorough build that doesn’t miss a narrative beat.
The LEGO Goonies set comes in a stylized box with a massive, detachable Copper Bones Skeleton Key on its front. Opening the box reveals a smaller, standard box inside, which contains 21 plastic bags – apparently, LEGO is still transitioning from plastic to paper. The instructions are spread across two instruction booklets. There is a single sticker sheet, but thankfully, most of the graphic elements are printed onto the bricks themselves, which will save you the anxiety of setting them on straight.
You build the set in four main chunks, which are fastened together at pin connection points to form the ship. The build felt like it took longer than it usually does, thanks to a whole lot of small, angular pieces. The process can occasionally feel fussy, because you’re counting studs to ensure that every detail is in its right place. There’s nothing so satisfying as bringing the two halves of the ship together, and having them meet in the middle. And there’s nothing so demoralizing as being a single row off and having to redouble your efforts.
The build is fragile while you’re putting it together. The designers incorporated holes to create the impression of rotting wood, which occasionally compromises structural integrity. But once the entire build is complete, the bricks reinforce against each other to create a stasis, and the set is sturdy enough to move around and place on the shelf of your choice.
There are so many little, neat details scattered throughout the build. Mikey, for example, has his inhaler, and Sloth has his Superman shirt with suspenders. Mama Fratelli (who always terrified me as a kid) has her signature black beret.
There’s enough set locations in this build that if you wanted to, you could make a Goonies stop-motion movie out of it, and it would make perfect sense. There’s the top floor, where Mama Fratelli gives the Goonies dirty glasses of water. There’s the fireplace, which shifts to the side to reveal a hidden passage. There’s the TV room where Chunk and Sloth meet for the first time, which has shackles hanging from the ceiling. There’s an above-ground wishing well, which leads to a flat area covered with coins. The pirate ship area includes the Treasure room, which is covered with gold bars, doubloons, a pirate skeleton, and One-Eyed Willy himself. Elsewhere in the build, you can find the skeleton of Chester Copperpot.
Below ground is every major booby trap from the film, and most of them have mechanical functionality. Hit the organ keys, and the floor gives way. Turn the dial, and the trap door opens, leading to a bed of spikes. Crank the massive rocks up to the ceiling and then trigger them to fall, crushing the minifigures below.
LEGO The Goonies is expensive, retailing for $329.99. High prices demand a high standard, but too many companies take their audience for granted. To use a personal example: I took my family to Disneyland in California three years ago, despite increasingly prohibitive pricing. We had a great time, overall. But the most galling thing was when I went on The Haunted Mansion – my favorite ride since I was a kid. I realized that the Hitchhiking Ghosts effect – the climax of the entire experience – was broken. And when I got off the ride and asked an employee about it, she acknowledged that yes, they knew it was broken, and no, they didn’t know when it would be repaired. For the prices Disney charges (at the time, $180 for a single-day pass), that’s inexcusable.
“Cheap, efficient, good. Pick two,” the saying goes – not one.
The simultaneous increase in price and decrease in quality – getting less while paying more – erodes brand trust, and it is an all-too-common pitfall for companies – like Disney – that make “quality” their reputation. For years, I’ve wondered if LEGO, in the midst of its global expansion, would fall into a similar complacency, and occasionally, I thought I saw signs of it. Because at the prices that LEGO charges, “good” is never enough. The sets have to be “great,” every time.
But I’m happy to report that the LEGO Goonies set easily meets the company’s highest standard. There’s usually something missing – a minor character, a silly aside – even in sets that outwardly claim to be “complete.” But this one follows through on its promise. I am hard pressed to think of anything noteworthy that the designers could have added but did not. It even includes the octopus, a “final boss” that was ultimately cut from the final film. That’s the next-level sort of dedication that all sets like these should have.
LEGO The Goonies, set #21363, retails for $329.99, and it is composed of 2,912 pieces. It is available now, exclusively at the LEGO Store. It’s currently on backorder (place an order and it will ship in 60 days), and for good reason.
Kevin Wong is a contributing freelancer for IGN, specializing in LEGO. He’s also been published in Complex, Engadget, Gamespot, Kotaku, and more. Follow him on Twitter at @kevinjameswong.
