Set Review ➟ 40501 The Wooden Duck
Today the new exclusive LEGO House set was presented. It is the first in a new line of LEGO House Limited Edition sets that will only be available in Billund.
The set reproduces the famous wooden duck that LEGO manufactured from the 1930s to the early 1960s, and which has behind it one of the most famous legends in LEGO history: the Godfred’s incident with the cost-saving varnish coats.
This is at least the second version of the duck that LEGO has launched, after the 2011 Christmas gift to employees.
The box opens with a flap, Architecture style. This makes the box a collectible item. The background color of the front is white and the sides and back are black.
The front of the set includes the duck in a grey sub-base, which makes the model stand out more than with the totally white background. It also includes the LEGO House logo and an eye-catching "Limited Edition 1", which augurs well for future sets exclusive to this line.
The back of the box contains a small text of the duck's history, as well as photos of the model, a comparison with the original model, and the most iconic, a photo of Ole Kirk Kristiansen drawing some plans with the duck on the table.
On the right side is the LEGO House moto: "Home of the Brick"
On the left side there are some data of the duck: The years of production, the fact that the original duck was designed by Ole Kirk, and that the brick model is as faithful as possible to the original.
The instruction booklet follows the austere aesthetics of the front of the box, and includes the same elements: the logo and the limited edition poster.
The back includes, again, the comparative photograph of the duck built with bricks and the wooden duck.
The inside is more interesting. The first 6 pages include a lot of information and history about the duck, the LEGO company and the LEGO House. When you buy the set, you can read this interesting information.
The Model
It's a very nice and striking model. It not only reproduces the wooden duck in its form, but also in its functionality, the opening of the duck's mouth. The model also includes a stand where to place the duck to expose it, which includes some bricks printed with the inscriptions "The wooden Duck" and "LEGO House".
The model is divided into 6 construction phases. Each has a numbered bag, plus a bag with the longest plates, bricks and liftarms.
It's not a particularly complicated construction. The greatest "difficulty" is in the mechanism that operates the duck's mouth, which moves as in the original wooden duck.
The 6 construction steps are as follows:
- Duck base, which includes the wheel axles, which will cause the movement of the duck's beak
- Body structure with snap-in wing supports
- Body completion.
- Head and drive mechanism of the spout
- Wings
- Wheels, rope and display stand.
We can observe the use of some liftarms to perform the opening mechanism of the duck's spout. The white liftarm moves and presses the top of the head, which is what causes the movement of the spout.
This liftarm reaches all the way down so that the wheels, when they turn, trigger their movement with a simple lever system.
There are several changes from the 2011 model. First of all the color scheme, much more vivid and colorful. Then the size. It is much larger, which, together with the availability of new parts, allows for a more profiled model, which makes it more similar to the real model.
Conclusions
We'll start with the emotional part. It is an iconic model, and Godfred Kirk Kristiansen's story with the coats of varnish made it the icon of quality that LEGO has always pursued. It is very nice that they have made the model 1:1 scale and with the same mechanism as the wooden duck.
The construction is pleasant, and it's not complex. Step by step you see the duck take shape and you become more excited to finish the build. The simple mechanism for opening the spout, even for small children, is no obstacle. The diversity in the tone of bricks of the same color, far from being an inconvenience, makes it seem that it has been painted by hand. Once in a lifetime, it didn't bother me.
The LEGO House has released this set as Number 1 of a limited edition series, although it should be Number 3, after the Tree of Creativity and the Dinosaurs. Seeing the diversity of models that the LEGO House offers us as exclusive, I'm already looking forward to seeing the next one. What will they surprise us with? We'll probably have to wait a year to find out.
HispaBrick Magazine thanks the LEGO House for providing the set for the review. The opinions expressed in this article are my own.
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