I’d spotted a Lego Game Boy on display at a local B&M shop but they never had any stock. I was confident that if I finally wanted to buy one the Lego store in Birmingham would have it when I visited recently.
Our visit to the Lego store in the Bull Ring was fantastic. We were warmly greeted and easily found what we needed. The service was efficient and they even helped me sign up for the Lego Insiders account. This proved very useful and I’ll elaborate on that later.
This 1:1 scale kit contains 421 pieces and interested me because I owned a Game Boy in the nineties. I bought one in America and enjoyed playing countless games on it. I imagined this set would offer a great LEGO build experience and make a lovely display piece for my home office. Although I bought it at a LEGO store the price was reasonable at £54.99 and I recall it was released on 1st October.
An extra bonus and a key draw was the inclusion of two replica game cartridges. One was a favourite Mario game of mine, bringing back fond memories. I was surprised they didn’t include a Tetris game and screen which everyone owned as I believe it came with the machine.
The parts were neatly bagged into five main bags and the instructions were included in a glossy brochure. I assembled it over a few hours working in stages.
As expected, the bricks were of excellent quality. Some even had the graphics for the Nintendo Game Boy face printed directly onto them below the screen, which looked much better than stickers.
The Game Boy, once made, features tactile buttons and movable parts like the volume control. Its solid construction is truly impressive and I’m pleased with the end result. For the price it’s a fantastic piece and very well-designed. I expect it will become a popular set and it even includes a stand.
Lego has organised to send me a missing piece after I’d carefully opened the packets and double-checked all the parts. However, I’d made a mistake earlier in the build and used the wrong brick, leaving me short on a required piece later.
I became more meticulous, carefully following each step’s instructions. For example, I’d sort the necessary pieces for a building step, assemble them and then move on to the next step. I simply took my time.
As a relatively small kit and a Lego novice as an adult, I underestimated how long it would take. It probably took me a bit longer than a more experienced builder at a few hours when I initially estimated 30 minutes.
The finished product looks fantastic and I’m truly pleased. It was a fun and relaxing build and you can see why so many people love Lego. It’s now on display in my office.
The Lego Insiders app was a great help. I ordered the missing piece and then browsed Lego kits to buy more. I definitely plan to buy more Lego and can understand why so many adults collect and build it.
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