LEGO TITANIC Review - YouTube

The LEGO Titanic is over 9000 pieces and while  failing to become the biggest LEGO set of all  

time since unfortunately that ship has sailed, it  is, as of today one of the most impressive models  

LEGO has ever made! It is a perfect replica  of the RMS Titanic, one of the most iconic  

and well known ships of the world due to the  unfortunate circumstances of its maiden voyage,  

and back then, it was the largest and  most luxurious ship ever made.  

Everything about this model is big, and it starts  with the box! I have never held the Colosseum or  

the UCS Millennium Falcon boxes, some of the  biggest ones LEGO has ever made so I can’t  

really compare it, but this thing is huge, weighs  about 14 kilos and makes standard LEGO boxes look  

completely ridiculous. Here it is next to  the FC Barcelona Stadium box, a set with  

almost half the piece count and yet it still  manages to be more than double the size.

LEGO has chosen beautiful shots of the  model to place on all sides of the box  

and on the back there’s hints at some of the  details the set has to offer when built.

Inside, the packaging keeps the premium  treatment, where we get to see a blueprint style  

of decoration in one of the flaps, and inside 3  separate boxes each of them corresponding to a  

different section of the ship. In these individual  boxes the schematics blueprint style of decoration  

is still there, with each box having a front and  back view of the ships section it contains inside,  

and when placed next to the others, combine into  bigger schematic blueprints styled images.

Each of the boxes contains the  corresponding numbered bags of  

pieces and instructions booklet. Now let’s talk about the model. At 1,35  

m is the longest LEGO set ever made and with  9090 pieces becomes the second biggest LEGO  

set of all time when it comes down to the  piece count, the first place still taken  

by the World Map with over 11.000 pieces. When looking at this, the feeling I have is that  

I’m looking at one of those highly detailed model  kits people assemble, because of the perfect use  

of string elements, all the micro scale details  of the deck, and the overall shape of the ship.

Like for real, we’re talking about  LEGO right? A square based system!?

But then there’s the curves and smooth  transitions, parts of the build at weird angles,  

hardly any gaps at all considering what I’ve  just said before and while building this all  

I could think was, how in the world is it  possible to make this with LEGO pieces?

First of all the color choices are beautiful,  the dark red of the hull topped by black and  

a plate layer of bright light orange that goes  all across the ship looks really nice. At the  

bow however this was done using prints as it would  otherwise be impossible to do it with just bricks.  

The top part of the ships hull is mostly white  while all of the deck is tan and the funnels look  

really nice with the combination of  bright light orange with black.

When making this review I compared the model  with blueprints of Titanic and I have to say,  

most of the details are spot on and right where  they should be. The bow of the ship features its  

name with printed tiles, and next to it we can  see the anchors, 3 in total brilliantly made  

with the LEGO sausage element. The pilot jack  flag is made with a plastic type of material,  

there’s also the forward anchor crane  and as is the case with most of the ship,  

a lot of the railings are represented by bar  elements clipped to the deck. The well deck  

has two of the 6 cargo cranes of the ship  and two cargo hatches. The cranes can be  

moved so you can kinda imagine Titanic  being loaded before starting a trip.

I really like the use of these detailed  slopes on their side to represent stairs  

people would use to go from one deck to another.  And finally in this section there’s the forward  

mast complete with the crows nest and topped by  the US flag. While researching for this review  

I found out that the US flag at the time only had  46 stars so as a test of the model accuracy I went  

on and zoomed all the way in to count them, and  guess what I found? 46 Stars. Well done LEGO.  

Here we can see the bridge of the ship from where  Titanic was steered, some of the lifeboats and the  

davits used to lower them to the water and up  here some air vents. I really like these ones  

here as they were made with the classic telephone  element recolored in white, with only half of  

it showing over the deck. The angled funnels  are probably one of the most iconic things of  

Titanic and in here that’s also true. They’re  locked in place quite well even at this weird  

angle and the use of the string elements really  highlight the model kit feel of the set.

Throughout the build we’re given in the building  instructions small facts about the Titanic,  

so in a way it also becomes a learning experience,  and a way of really understanding the parts of the  

ship we’re building. Like this one for instance,  did you know that the Titanic had 4 funnels  

but only three of them were functional and the  fourth was just there for aesthetic purposes?

On the bigger section of the hull we can see the  portholes down here and several different types  

of windows and decks passengers from different  classes used while traveling, and up here some  

micro scale wooden seats and more of the areas  accessed with the use of the slope stairs element  

as well as a different combination of bar elements  to achieve even more detailed railings.

At the stern of the ship we have similar  builds for the cargo cranes and hatches,  

stairs, railings and stern mast. There’s also  the representation of the docking bridge and  

the Technic gear here is actually used to  adjust the tension of the string elements  

between masts which otherwise would be down. The last flag is the Blue Ensign to identify  

the ships nationality, and back here is a  printed slope reading: Titanic and Liverpool,  

the city where the ship was registered. Down here we have the rudder that can be moved  

as well as the 3 propellers. These are connected  to driveshafts that go all the way inside the ship  

and why is that you might ask. Well, I was  actually scared about the fact the model was  

this big as it could prove to be a boring build,  especially when you look at the main section of  

the hull. It almost looks the inside is just a  boring structure to support the outside details.  

But, guess again. By removing these two  locks, the LEGO Titanic can be split into  

3 different sections that show highly  detailed cross sections of the ship.

In the bow section we can see the engine furnaces,  one of the two grand staircases the ship had,  

and several cabins where I feel beds where  made with the use of regular white tiles,  

the very thin walls where achieved with the  use of car door elements and there’s also a  

pool and some sort of dining area at the top. The middle section has brick built coal bunkers,  

I really like how the swimming pool matches the  exact location of the swimming pool in the bow  

section and there’s a few more cabins and rooms  here. The way the locks are done is very seamless  

and you don’t even notice it when the ship is in  one piece. The build is done in such a sturdy way  

that when locked, you can easily transport this  9000 piece LEGO model around without the fear of  

anything falling apart which isn’t often the  case with big LEGO models such as this.

When unlocking the stern section we finally  find one of the coolest aspects of the model.  

The two main piston engines that actually  work and are connected to the port and  

starboard screws.

Now if you want to take a closer look at the  engines and how the engine crankshafts and  

pistons work, they can actually be easily  removed from its place. It is a shame  

that there isn’t a way to make the propellers  turn remotely while the ship is in one piece,  

and I feel that there was a missed opportunity  in trying to do the same for the main propeller,  

having a knob somewhere to also turn it. I  also feel there’s enough space inside of the  

hull structure where some links could be done  to have all the propellers work in sync.

One thing that I really liked while building  the set is that somewhere in here there’s the  

representation of the electrical engine that is  connected to the central propeller. After you  

build the whole thing you will never see it again,  as it isn’t accessible but you know it’s there,  

and you know it’s connected  to the central propeller. How  

cool is that for model accuracy? Finally the whole model rests on top of  

6 supports, further giving this the feel of a  kit model, complete with the ship's nameplate.  

I actually dislike it however. It was done using  the letter prints from the LEGO Ideas typewriter  

and in a way feels like the thought was, we  have these letters might as well just use them,  

instead of actually thinking of a  more proper way of displaying the  

name like you would see on model kits. An all black name plaque of some sort

But hey, at this point of the review this has  been my only complaint about the model so you  

can kinda see where I’m going with this, it  is an amazing model overall not only due to  

the level of detail and care while designing it,  but also the building experience which for me,  

is what makes a LEGO set fenomenal. You would think that at over 9000 pieces the set  

would be a pain or boring to build but it actually  wasn’t. At all! Sure, there are some boring  

moments of the build where you need to build a  lot of these porthole builds, and these window  

sections are repetitive when you’ve built a couple  already, but those moments are easily forgotten  

once you get to the juicy parts of the build. Right at the start, the bow section of the build  

is like a Masterclass of LEGO triangles  and engineering. A few steps in and I  

was sure this was a Mike Psiaki build, my  favorite LEGO model designer and a mastermind  

at finding clever and unexpected building  connections. The way these sections fit together  

so nicely in a seamless way, and how good  the clicking sounds feel when everything  

is finally connected is super satisfying. The way the funnels go perfectly at an angle to  

be locked in place by pushing the technic bushes  is another of such examples, even the simple micro  

scale wooden seats being flushed down the deck  and clicked into place, or in the back where in  

the stern section, the white hull wraps around  the deck so perfectly. Speaking of the deck,  

there's lots of places where the angles would  make you think it would not be possible to  

hide gaps away but then there’s countless  examples of how that isn’t true at all.

I mean… The LEGO Titanic has easily become my  favorite LEGO set of all time. Maybe due to  

nostalgia by having watched the movie countless  times as a kid, falling in love with the ship,  

and now having a set made of that, surely for the  fact that this has been one of the best building  

experiences I have ever had, which completely  caught me off guard as I always thought that due  

to the size of the model, it would be a boring  and repetitive build and finally because I feel  

personally attached to this model as in 2019  while still working for LEGO I had pitched and  

made a concept model of a LEGO Titanic Idea to  the Creator Expert team. When I first started  

hearing the rumours about the Titanic I was really  excited about it, and while I would never be able  

to claim any involvement on the set, I was at  least really happy that people actually found  

it to be a good idea to turn into a LEGO set. But then I got sent a review copy of the set  

by LEGO, thank you LEGO by the way, and then I  started building it, and then this happened…

Oh. My. God.

I'm just building this and, look at this

look at it!

Focus please

It is the TC, tombstone

On the Titanic!

Where is it?!

Come on, come on

OH

MY

GOD

I cannot believe this

Why is this?

So yeah, long story short, In 2018 I designed  the Ship In a Bottle set in which I included  

a tile with my initials TC. In 2019 I left LEGO  for personal reasons and in mid 2020 the Haunted  

House set was launched which included mentions  to my name in the form of the Organ of Catarino,  

a part of the design which I only gave spoken  feedback on, and a TC tombstone on the Haunted  

House graveyard resembling the font style of the  Ship in a Bottle tile and in a way, a super cool  

way of my former colleagues remembering me as  Tiago Catarino, the LEGO designer who in a way,  

died for having left LEGO. Now, I’m assuming my pitch of

the Titanic to LEGO back in 2019 must have  had some sort of significance in turning the  

idea into an actual LEGO set two years later,  and for that reason the TC tile was used once  

again and I personally think that’s like the  greatest Easter egg ever on a LEGO set!

Am I being biased in calling the LEGO Titanic the  best LEGO set ever? Probably, to some degree, but  

that still doesn’t change my mind. It’s an amazing  looking model, an amazing building experience,  

with lots of attention to detail, that from  a distance hardly looks like LEGO at all,  

which is like the best way of complimenting  something built out of LEGO bricks.

One issue with the set though is the price, it  will retail for 630 euros or usd, and will be  

available to pre-order November 1st! When it comes  down to the price per piece ratio it's actually a  

very good LEGO deal, it's just that it might be  hard to justify paying this price in one go for  

a single LEGO model. Good luck trying to convince  your partners, if you live with someone else! You  

can show them this review if it helps though! The way the build is done by being split in three  

different boxes with each of them containing their  own set of numbered bags, booklet instructions  

and even a brick separator per box, make this a  great model to be building with someone else.

Another thing to consider is that this  thing is huge! At little over 1,30 meters,  

this is the longest LEGO set of all time  and if you’re considering getting it,  

make sure you have the space to display it. With a set this big there’s lots of interesting  

elements worth mentioning like the dark red slopes  used on the ships hull, lots of dark red brackets,  

a ton of the newer 2x6 tiles in dark red, a C  plate, bright light orange light saber hilts  

and bars, a few of these new slopes in white and  reddish brown, this black rounded brick of the  

funnels, lots of the new 1x5 plates in tan. The Longest LEGO set ever, deserves the longest  

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