The LEGO has landed: New set allows you to build the Moon rocket

In 2014, Felix Stiessen and Valerie Roche proposed the idea for Saturn V rocket on the LEGO Ideas website. About a year later, their concept received the 10,000 votes necessary for formal consideration by LEGO. The company green-lighted the idea in 2016, and now we have our first look at this set.

As a full disclaimer, I am a lifelong fan of LEGOs and a lifelong fan of spaceflight. So don't expect a rational review of this product by Ars. I mean, the final product will have three removable rocket stages, as well as the lunar lander and lunar orbiter. Drool.

The entire rocket measures about one meter tall, and this is approximately at a scale of 1:110 to the real thing built by Wernher von Braun and his engineers. Additionally, the rocket is 17cm in diameter. The package also contains three astronaut figures for role-playing on the lunar surface. And here's the best part: the set has precisely 1,969 pieces. JFK would be proud.

The LEGO Saturn V is recommended for ages 14 and up, and it will be available beginning on June 1. If there's a downside, it's that, like the Apollo program itself, the Saturn V set comes at a high cost—the suggested retail price is $119.99 (~£120).

According to CollectSPACE, this is the second LEGO set to offer a version of the historic Moon rocket. The first, the "Saturn V Moon Mission," was released in 2003 as part of a series co-branded with the Discovery Channel. That was a much more modest set, however, with 178 pieces.

Listing image by LEGO