LEGO Icons GWP 40729 Shackleton’s Lifeboat – Really feeling the FOMO! [Review]

maandag, 25 november 2024

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With the monster LEGO Icons 10335 The Endurance coming in with over 3,000 pieces, it’s hard to think there’s more that could be added on. And yet, LEGO still drums up some extras with a special gift-with-purchase, LEGO Icons GWP 40729 Shackleton’s Lifeboat, available from November 29th through December 2nd with the purchase of the big ship (US | CAN | UK). So let’s dig into this 232-piece GWP and see if it’s worth prioritizing a buy of LEGO Icons 10335 The Endurance over Black Friday weekend. If you miss the GWP during this window, it may be available from some 3rd party resellers like Amazon or eBay.

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

The box and contents

First up, let’s have a gander at this wonderful little box. With a white stripe of bricks and tiles along the bottom and the Icons logo, this LEGO set fits in with several other set-exclusive GWPs. In fact, the only thing out-of-the-ordinary when it comes to this packaging is that the whole model doesn’t actually fit on the front of the box. Instead, the masts curve up onto the top. At least they’re not cut off.

The box back just shows a second orientation of the same pieces. There’s not much in the way of play features here, so that makes sense.

Cutting the tape along the side, out tumbles an instruction booklet and 6 (yes, 6!) numbered bags and some loose larger parts. While that may seem like a lot of bags for such a small set… No, that really is way too may bags for something this size. I’m sure there’s some manufacturing reason for it, but I certainly can’t explain it on my own.

The build

Bag 1 creates the minifigures of this set: Sir Ernest Shackleton and a crewmember. Also included is surveying equipment, a crate of supplies, and a wonderful little stove. The “double boiler” concept here is quite possibly my favorite part of the set. We’ll take a more in-depth look at the figs later on.

Completing bag 2, some darling skis come together for this polar lifeboat. The instructions show how this sled can also be used to haul the supply crate. I do think a rope here is called for, allowing the minifigs to more easily show that they’re the ones doing the hauling. With it’s heavy reliance on rounded plates like the 1×2 and the 1×5, the rig is a little more flimsy than I’d like, capable of wiggling a little along those connecting struts.

With bag 3, we begin on the lifeboat. A simple frame comes together, with plenty of studs facing out from the sides. These are going to be essential for hull assembly later on.

Bag 4 is next, and the parts it contains round out the bottom of the hull into something more ship-ly. We see a mast start to take shape, as well as a pair of seats for the polar expedition crew.

That brings us to bag 5, which finishes up the rest of the white hull. Another round of brackets shifts studs back to pointing upward, with an eye to finishing out the ship in the last bag.

And speaking of the last bag, number 6 comes in with plenty of black bars and dark tan tile to cover the top of the boat and apply some rudimentary masts and a rudder. I like the use of the clips along the edges to help guide the black tubing that rings the vessel. There’s also a small hatch that breaks away, allowing access to the seats inside.

The minifigures

As we saw in bag 1 of the build, this GWP comes with two LEGO minifigures. A crewmember of the Endurance is on the left, with a black torso (front and back printing), dark blue cap, and unprinted dark gray pants. His face is single-sided, with a lovely smirk. Shackleton (on the right) sports a dark blue torso print (again, front and back), with a scarf and suspenders leading to a pair of dark brown legs (unprinted). He also sports a dark brown fedora, and another single-sided head print. After some quick research, these minifigure torso prints appear to be unique.

The final build

Bringing it all together now, the final set seems just fine. A nice addition to the larger set, in keeping with the display-intentions of a huge LEGO ship made for adults to build. There’s very little in play possibility, with the only “feature” of a removable boat cover existing primarily for posing options. The part selection is also okay, with some solid stuff. But it’s nothing really worth writing home about. That is, of course, unless you just have to get your hands on a minifigure Ernest Shackleton.

Conclusions and recommendations

I’ve talked to a fair number of non-LEGO friends who are very excited about LEGO Icons 10335 The Endurance. The history buff in them is set alight by something more niche than the Titanic being available in LEGO form. It’s something they could use to teach their kids about Antarctic exploration in a time well before GPS when a sextant and the stars were the Google Maps of the day. But every single one of them has asked me why the Ernest Shackleton minifigure doesn’t come in the main set. We’ve seen a string of limited run GWPs lately for behemoth sets coming out in 2024, and I can’t help but start using the term “exploitative” at this point. I’ve seen minifig FOMO move some real cash, and that’s exactly what this feels like here.

There once was a time when I was deep into the Magic: the Gathering hobby alongside LEGO, for nearly 20 years of my life. But I stopped participating (and more importantly, buying the cards entirely) because of a decision by the game’s owner, Wizards of the Coast. They began the practice of making certain game pieces (in this case, cards with a unique function in the game) only available for a week or two and almost exclusively from them directly. The Fear Of Missing Out concept is an immediate turn-off for me, and that was the end of my time in the hobby. With the Shackleton minifigure appearing only in this GWP, and only for 4 days directly from LEGO, I feel some of that same energy here. And while I don’t see Shackleton as an essential piece (and will therefore continue building until 2×4 bricks are treated similarly), I know there are already those in my orbit considering passing on the Endurance and the GWP entirely, solely because of this decision. So I hope the trajectory will begin to change for LEGO’s GWP offerings.

Included with purchases of LEGO Icons 10335 The Endurance from the LEGO website or stores from November 29th to December 2nd, LEGO Icons GWP 40729 Shackleton’s Lifeboat is made up of 232 pieces, and you can find more about how to get it here: (US | CAN | UK)

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.