The LEGO Ideas theme keeps growing bigger and bigger and we now have the largest set that has come out of the crowdsourcing theme with the LEGO Ideas Tree House (21318). It contains a whopping 3,036 pieces and retails for $199.99 and it is now available for purchase. Let’s take a look at it to see if it is worthy of the price tag. The contents of the box include a total of 31 bags, 21 of which are numbered to 19 and the rest for the leaves. There’s also a large instruction booklet containing 428 pages.
Instructions
Like with many other LEGO Ideas sets, we get a bit more information in the front of the book. It does talk about the Plants from Plants initiative and this set uses over 180 of the plant pieces making this set the largest one to use that many elements from sustainable sources.
The book also gives some details about the fan designer, Kevin Feeser, and the LEGO designer, Cesar Carvalhosa Soares.
Minifigures
There are four minifigures in the set, mom, dad, a boy, and girl. The mom wears a brown jacket over a blue shirt with gray legs. She does have a double-sided head with a smirk on one side and a winking expression on the other. She has some shorter brown hair.
The dad wears some sort of ranger outfit with some brown legs. His face shows him with a beard and with a slight smile and he wears a a hat to complete his look. He also has a separate spiky hair piece as well.
The boy wears a red jacket over some tan legs. His face shows him with a very excited smile and he wears some glasses.
Finally we have the girl whose torso shows her with a camping vest and has short brown legs. She has a smiling expression and her cap has her ponytail molded on to it.
Build
Bag 1 allow you to create the base of the Tree House. It is basically the grassy area of the set and it uses some Technic beams to support the structure. In the middle, there are a couple of white Technic beams that will be used to support the trunk of the tree.
The next bag is used to fill out the rest of the landscape as well as parts to build the stream on one side of the layout. Here it uses some trans-clear plates over the blue to make it look like water is flowing.
Bags 3 and 4 are used to build the tree trunk. There are a couple of door frames used for the base with some SNOT bricks to allow the trunk to get its shape. There are some gaps right between the four sides and those corners are covered up using the 1×1 round plate with bar to give the trunk its final shape. You’ll notice there is a printed slope piece of a carving on the tree with the phrase “Build your dreams” with Kevin Feeser’s initials. That’s a nice little touch to it.
Bag 5 is used to build up the tree more as well as the branches of the tree. The trunk uses the same technique as before using the SNOT bricks. One of the branches even has a swing for it.
Bag 6 gives you parts to build more of the trunk, again with more of the SNOT bricks and technique. We also expand more on the three branches to make them a bit thicker to prepare for what’s to come. Some detailing here include a small birdhouse as well as a printed wood piece to show where one of the branches used to be.
Next up, we start building the cabins that are perched on the branches. The first one is the main bedroom and some of its features include a bed in the middle along with a dresser and cabinet using sand green jumper plates for the drawers. Some accessories include a compass, a letter, a pair of binoculars, and if you lift up the sheets on the bed, you’ll find a pair of scissors hidden underneath. This is an easter egg of Kevin’s job as a hairdresser which is a cool addition.
The octogon room is held in place using some hinge plates on the top and bottom of the walls. This technique is used for all three rooms.
Following the main bedroom, we have the bathroom which includes some amenities such as a tub with a shower head, toilet, and sink.
Outside of the bathroom is a crane that you can wind up to bring items up from the ground level. The basket is filled with fruits and vegetables as well as a fish. In addition, there’s also parts for the stairs that go up to the kids cabin.
The last room to build is the kids’ bedroom. It features a bunk bed for the kids as well as a treasure map on the wall.
Bag 13 is used for the blue roofs. They are all similar builds but they have slightly different details on them. They sit snugly on the designated color coordinated tiles on the top of the cabins.
Bag 14 is used to build the top of the tree. There are a number of hinge pieces which are used to connect the leaves on to later on. There are two levels which are separated by a turntable to have the upper level leaves at an angle.
Following that, we have the stairs that lead up to the main bedroom. The lower part is clipped on to the pole while a majority of the stairs uses the dedicated stair piece. The upper part of the stairs are separate steps that also clip onto the pole.
Next we add more details around the whole set. There’s a brick built telescope that goes on the balcony of the kids cabin. Furthermore, there is a picnic table and chairs next to the stairs. By the stream, there’s a fire going on a hanging pot.
Lastly we have the leaves to put on. There are two sets of leaves that you can choose from, the lush green summer ones and the warm brown fall ones. The parts placement for the two seasons is exactly the same.
Results
Overall the LEGO Ideas Tree House (21318) is a pretty decent set for the price point. It is a great display piece and there are a lot little details inside the cabins as well as on the tree itself and on the ground level.
Probably the only downside of the set are the leaves themselves. Swapping them out for the two seasons is monotonous and downright boring in my opinion. The original project didn’t feature another set of leaves so having the fall ones is a definite plus.
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