The sides of this section are lavishly clad in drum-lacquered gold tiles before the landing gear, made using predominantly Technic, is attached. There's some clever geometry involved, which we understand was Mike Psiaki's handiwork. The top surface of the landing section is a bizarre combination of SNOT (studs-not-on-top) building technique, 2×2 corner tiles and a bulky 10×10 octagonal plate in the very center of the structure. At some point it hard to believe how perfectly all the pieces sit together! This advanced LEGO set features a detailed replica of the Eagle lunar lander with separate ascent and descent stages, plus a depiction of the lunar surface with crater, footprints and a U.S. flag. In all honesty, the argument that prints (or baseplates) would make sets more expensive is plain BS. It just means that TLG would have less of a crazy profit margin. That's all.

New-for-June-2019 decorated elements include an Apollo 11 Lunar lander nameplate and golden elements. The heads are similarly generic but no hair components are included which is somewhat disappointing. Arm printing would have been welcome as well, especially on the left shoulder where an American flag should appear. On that basis, these are reasonable minifigures for displaying beside the spacecraft but room for improvement certainly remains. Furthermore, the minifigures incorporate a new torso, featuring the NASA emblem beside nozzles that deliver oxygen to the wearer. Unfortunately, these nice details are partially concealed when the helmet is attached and the famous Apollo 11 mission patch is also missing. Perhaps that was excluded so the minifigures could represent astronauts from a variety of different missions.Almost five decades have passed since Apollo 11 delivered humans to the surface of the Moon on the 20th of July, 1969. This amazing achievement has inspired numerous LEGO models and 10266 NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander looks wonderful in official images, accurately replicating this classic spacecraft design.

There is one simple way to describe this wonderful experience: LEGO Creator Expert 10266 NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander is a set no-one knew we needed. You don’t need to be a fan of space to fall in love with the set. But if you are a fan and you already got LEGO Ideas 21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V, please don’t make a huge mistake of leaving the new brilliant addition to the Apollo 11 mission out of your collection. If you have already assembled the LEGO Ideas 21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V set, get ready to experience a deja-vu while building the lander. Its landing stage has the same octagon structure covered with plates and tiles on each of its eight sides. Even though the building technique differs a lot from those used in the Saturn V set, such structures require a strong dose of repetitive building. Our recommendation: get a partner to build the set together with! The Lego NASA Apollo Saturn V is another hugely impressive set, if you’ve got the room to display it. Standing at almost 40 inches (1 meter) high, it’s one of the tallest sets Lego have ever released. It’s a bit of a repetitive build, but the attention to detail and great part-per-piece price ratio make it a strong recommendation from us. This set was provided for review by The LEGO Group but the review is an expression of my own opinions.Bag number 3 is a real treat. It brings various tiles in metallic gold as well as some other pieces of this color. There are 90 pieces of two shades of gold in the set in total. All in all, the set can be assembled in just a couple of hours. Even though some building steps feel a little bit monotonous, the set will leave you wanting for more! Finished model Since the set captures the culmination of the lunar mission, the scene has all the attributes of the historic event. First of all, it’s a minifigure’s footprints on the surface of the moon just by a place for a flag.

The story goes that the first two humans to visit the moon were Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. The figures in set are just a couple of generic LEGO minifigures in space suits, so it’s up to you if you want to identify them with the real astronauts.

Box and packaging

Once the moon is conquered, both astronauts can return to the module. By removing the front of the stage you have another scenario for displaying the model. Just like LEGO Architecture sets, this one comes with a printed with a name of the set tile. I believe this one tiny detail really sets the mood and gives the set a very special feel an anniversary product deserves. I hope you have found this review informative. Let us know by liking this article and share your thoughts on the set in the comments below. And I for one see this as simply cheaping out. Like mentioned above, other manufacturers manage to provide high quality prints and affordable sets at the same time, so why shouldn't TLG be able to do so? The answer is, as long as there are people believing those BS arguments TLG can get away with it. Two astronauts are included, representing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Numerous minifigures are intended to depict astronauts from the Apollo program and none are especially effective in my opinion. However, this bulky helmet assembly is certainly a reasonable facsimile of the real suits and I love the metallic gold visor covering the face of each astronaut.

This is an excellent set, which looks particularly striking due to the large number of 310 Metalized Gold Gold parts, iconic shape, and the lunar landscape that it’s sitting on. It is a fantastic display piece, which will look great in your home or displayed proudly on your desk at work. Two minifigures and some open studs on the lunar surface let you play out various scenarios of the event. But it doesn’t matter how historically accurate your display is, the scene always looks as exciting as possible. Neil Armstrong activated a television camera while descending the ladder and that important feature is replicated here. Opening a hatch beside the ladder reveals the camera which appears fairly simple but is instantly recognisable. I appreciate the printed tape reels and the white colour scheme distinguishes this television camera from its surroundings, although silver would have been more realistic. Oh yes and prints are hideously expensive too. Hence why sets by companies like Cobi or MegaConstrux, which use prints almost exclusively, are so much more expensive than LEGO... NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander is an outstanding set, matching the high standard established by the recent 21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V. The model looks fantastic on display, featuring many realistic details and numerous metallic gold elements that really stand out against the dark lunar surface. I love how the octagonal shape of the descent stage has been designed and the ascent stage looks similarly realistic.In the fourth bag, we build the Ascent Stage, which is comprised of three modules which you can disassemble to see inside. The four reaction control system thrusters on each corner aptly utilise a piece first introduced in Classic Space, 3963 steering nozzle, which is new here in dark bluish grey.