During the recent fan media event at Billund, Denmark, LEGO officially revealed the upcoming #21310 LEGO Ideas Old Fishing Store. The model was originally submitted by Dutch LEGO fan Robert Bontenbal, it achieved the required 10K public votes, and was chosen by the LEGO Ideas team to be the next set in the collection of fan-designed models. Below are the details of the set, as well as the announcement from the LEGO Ideas blog. 🙂
Here is the announcement from the LEGO Ideas blog: Woahhh! We’ve reeled in a big one! It’s big, green, brown, and oh so fishy… ahem, we mean BEAUTIFUL! We’re thrilled to finally unveil the first official images of the charming #21310 LEGO Ideas Old Fishing Store designed by LEGO Ideas member Robert Bontenbal (RobenAnne) from the Netherlands. The Old Fishing Store officially opens its doors for business on the 1st of September, 2017 for a recommended retail price of USD 149.99 / EURO 149.99 / GBP 139.99. Weighing in at 2,049 LEGO bricks, this store will have plenty of space to stock all the fishing gear you need.
And here is the official description: Find all the gear you need for a fantastic fishing trip at the Old Fishing Store! Walk up the steps from the beach into the shop selling fishing rods, hooks, harpoons, diving equipment, oxygen tanks and much more. Climb the ladder to the top of the watchtower and look through the telescope to enjoy the view. Then relax and read the newspaper in the office. Just make sure the cat or seagulls don’t eat the freshly caught fish hanging outside! The Old Fishing Store is ideal for display and role-play, this model has 2 removable roofs, an opening back wall in the shop for easy access, 4 minifigures, cat and 3 seagull figures, as well as loads of other cool details and elements to fire up the imagination.
A bit more detail from the LEGO Ideas blog: Inspiration for LEGO Ideas projects often come from a very personal place, and Robert’s inspiration to build his Old Fishing Store certainly is no different from this observation. It’s that passion for something familiar that truly shines throughout his set and can be noticed in all the details. Robert elaborates on where this inspiration came from – “Fishing has always been my hobby. From fishing in the Caribbean, where I lived for a while, to fishing in Holland. So you could say that my interest in fishing and my job as an architectural draughtsman came together in this model”. He adds that “inspiration is very important, so was finding a theme that could help develop the model. I got my initial inspiration from the LEGO Christmas houses and sea villages. I started by doing some sketching on paper, then created a mood board to determine the details and color schemes. Especially the use of the right colors was important in my design”.
And some insight into the final design: When Robert’s Old Fishing Store was approved for production in the fall of 2016, LEGO designer Adam Grabowski took over the project “to make sure that the model lived up to LEGO quality”. It is often a challenging job to respect someone else’s design whilst altering it to fit LEGO guidelines, but Adam says he “tried to stay very true to the original design. That’s what got 10,000 votes and is what people want. I didn’t want to change much of the original look and there was no reason to do so”. Adam puts on the hat of an AFOL (Adult-Fan-Of-LEGO) and adds, “it was great to be able to bring back certain elements like the seagull, and use others like the lobster, that were only previously available in other sets”.
Beautiful set, isn’t it? And big! Notice that it’s on a 32×32 stud baseplate, which is the same size as the LEGO Modular Buildings. It’s interesting to note that this is the second very large LEGO Ideas set in a row that breaks both the price and piece-count threshold of the previous fan-submitted sets. It’s nice to see fan-designers getting so much support and recognition both by the company and the community. There are a couple of interesting interviews with Robert on the LEGO Ideas blog that you can read here and here, and you can check out his other projects here.
I can’t wait to get this set! The building techniques are very interesting, and the colors are beautiful! As mentioned above, the Old Fishing Store will be available in September, and in the meantime, you can check out all the other currently available fan-submitted models at the LEGO Ideas section of the Online LEGO Shop.
What do you think? How do you like the LEGO Ideas Old Fishing Store? Are you happy with the final design? And are you planning to add it to your collection? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉
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