When LEGO announced that the Maze (21305) would be the next released LEGO Ideas set, there was a mixed reaction from fans. Some loved the nostalgia of the old school wooden Labyrinth Marble Maze game including me while others felt that another project would have been a better choice. LEGO has graciously sent us a review copy of the Maze and here is my official review of the set.
The LEGO Ideas Maze (21305) contains 769 pieces and retails for $69.99 which is so far the most expensive Ideas set although it does come in at a nice $0.09/piece ratio. The contents of the box include the instruction booklet, eight un-numbered bags, four black 8×16 plates, and a 32×32 gray baseplate.
Box
The box is fairly large considering the amount of pieces that are in the set. The front shows the the Maze in the all its glory. The background, not surprisingly, has a maze design thoughout the outer part of the box. The back of the box shows off the play function as well as the 2-in-1 feature it has with the different designs of the maze. There’s also an image of some inspirational designs by Jason that you can use for your maze.
Instruction Booklet
Unlike the previous LEGO Ideas instructions, the one for the Maze is not made out of the thicker paper but it uses the standard paper. The first couple of pages give a short description of the Maze as well as the designer of the project Jason Allemann, aka JK Brickworks. The instructions themselves is pretty straightforward. At the end, Jason gives you a closer look at some additional maze designs that you can build. Jason has mentioned that he will be posting those instructions over on his website in the near future.
Build
The build starts off with the base of the set. A few steps in, you’ll be building the areas that affect how the wheels turn. This is acheived by the various uses of Technic parts to get the two-axis gimbal system to work. The bottom wheel controls the left and right movements while the right wheel controls the up and down movements. You’ll notice after the frame is completed that they don’t turn all the way on both axis. This isn’t a huge issue since you’ll be gently tilting the maze a majority of the time.
The Maze is held in place by the removable four-ball container on one end of the build which itself is held still by a 2×2 corner brick. The other part is on the opposite end of the Maze that also locks it in place so the controls don’t rock back and forth.
The last half of the build involves building the two Maze designs. The first design is essentially the original one that was submitted on LEGO Ideas. The only difference is that standard bricks are used for the walls instead of Technic parts.
The other Maze design is based on a medieval theme. It is much livlier than the first design as it has different structures like the castle, a bridge, and various houses. What’s nice is that LEGO also includes a brick seperator to remove the tiles easier. To make it easier to remove the mazes, push up from the bottom of the frame.
Furthermore, probably the main reason why LEGO is releasing this set is because it gives people an opportunity to create their own mazes using your own imagination.
Results
Ever since the LEGO Ideas Maze (21305) was announced that it will be releasing on April 1st, I was a bit excited about it because it does give me some happy emotions of me playing the original Labyrinth Marble Maze game when I was a kid.
The build itself was pretty enjoyable and easy to create. The two-axis system for the tilting mechanism using Technic axles was effective. The one problem that I had with it was that I pushed in the Technic pins too tightly and the wheels wouldn’t turn as smoothly as I wanted. Once I loosened them up just a tiny bit, they work perfectly fine.
The other issue that I had wasn’t actually with the set itself but with the balls that were used. If you examine them closely, you will notice that they have small dimples due to the molding process. The issue will sometimes get the balls stuck in the maze. You would then have to wiggle the wheels a little bit to loosen it up again. I suggest replacing the balls with marbles to have a better play experience. If you want the set to completely be LEGO, there are some official steel balls for the MINDSTORMS EV3.
Overall I like it. There are small issues I had with it but nothing too drastic. The Maze is enjoyable on top of the fact that you pretty much have unlimited ways you can play the game. I am actually excited to see what maze designs others can come up with. I’ve completed a couple of runs for both of the mazes included included in the set however it took a couple of tries each. Along with the building experience, the game also trains you on dexterity and your patience along with other motor skills.
Thank you to LEGO AFOL Relations & Programs Team for sending in this set for me to review. The content above represents my own opinion and not the company.
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“Some loved the nostalgia of the old school wooden Labyrinth Marble Maze game including me while others felt that another project would have been a better choice.”
See, that’s just bad logic, there. Birds/TBBT, Wall-E/Doctor Who, and the recently announced Adventure Time/Catterheim should be proof positive that they meant it when they said Ideas isn’t limited to one approved project per round, and the round that flushed every current and previous submission should prove that they also meant it when they said there’s no guarantee that any project will be approved in a given round. This may not be of interest to all AFOLs, and at $70 it probably won’t see as many impulse buys as some of the previous sets, but the mere existence of this set did not directly cause any other submissions to be rejected. That falls to licensing roadblocks, incompatible brand values, being dependent upon new element creation (which they’re not allowed to do), and a lack of individual designers who feel they could actually make a version of the model that would clear the Design Department. All submissions that make it to the review state are judged on their own merits, not against each other. It’s just hard to get people to accept that when they aren’t reviewed the instant they clear 10k, and instead are collected, reviewed, and announced in batches.
As for myself, I didn’t even try to chase down the two Japanese releases, I had zero interest in Minecraft, and I really wanted the Mars Rover (but never caught its flash-in-a-pan release), but otherwise I have bought at least two copies of every Cuusoo/Ideas set released. This will probably be the first I intentionally skip since Minecraft. I don’t begrudge them approving it, but it just doesn’t interest me enough to throw that much money at, even if I limited myself to one copy. If they’d kept it to $20, I might be interested, but I suspect the final product would suck mightily. So, it looks like a solid design, and I don’t mind it being produced, but I’m not very interested in the model, and even less interested in paying for it.
All he said was that he liked this one being but there were other people who would have preferred something else. He never said anything along the lines of “There can only be one!”
Only one Ideas set has been $20, and to go from $70 down to $20 is utterly ridiculous.
Instead of criticizing Allen, be appreciative of him taking time to give us this early look and detailed review.
Thanks Allen!
That wasn’t directed at Allen. It was directed at the people he said were complaining that they should have picked a different project. If they’d rejected this, it wouldn’t have resulted in one of the other submissions being approved. It would have resulted in the second time that nothing made it through the approval process.
There’s a massive disconnect between what the community seems to expect from Ideas and what Ideas can actually deliver. I can rule out at least half of any round based on size alone. Ideas is banned from generating new molds, and they are restricted to five Q elements per project. Ginormous submissions might be able to skip the new molds, but anything short of a really plain design (like this marble maze) will have a tough time with the Q element restriction. If you read some of the interviews with the Exo-Suit designer, the proposed white Spaceman would have required more Q elements than black, blue, or green, and they already had a tough time making the base model work with the remaining quota.
People whinged about both the Sandcrawler and the Helicarrier, but neither of those would have been feasible based on the Q element restriction alone, and both fall under existing licenses which the rules state have priority over any Ideas submission.
If people made a point of reading and actually comprehending the rules, a lot of these pointless complaints might actually die down.
I agree with Dave here. People’s expectations are way too high for LEGO Ideas. Some projects look really nice but are way too unfeasible for LEGO to produce. They just don’t get that a project that hits 10k doesn’t mean it automatically becomes a set. That’s probably a reason why LEGO launched that new campaign calling for more original idea.
Wow! A LEGO set that can actually be used like a proper toy. Has LEGO ever done anything like this before?