As of late, LEGO has been providing all kinds of helmets and busts on pedestals for their various IP partnerships. This pattern worms its way into the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise with LEGO Sonic the Hedgehog 77000 Shadow the Hedgehog, set to hit store shelves on October 1st. With 720 pieces, the set is available now for pre-order from LEGO.com for US $69.99 | CAN $89.99 | UK £59.99. It may also be available from 3rd party resellers on Amazon and eBay. But how will this bust hold up to the other plinthed creations from Star Wars and Marvel? Read on to find out!
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
The box and contents
Clad in the standard 18+ packaging, the Shadow bust stands against a black and red background. The stylized name of the set sits at the top, while the Sonic logo and LEGO logo appear above the standard band of colored brickwork at the bottom.
The rear of the box provides a different angle of the bust, some measurements of the model, and source artwork from the Sonic franchise.
Two thumb-punches later, and the contents of the box are revealed. Inside is the usual instruction manual, with a couple of pages dedicated to the Shadow-y source material. These pages identify Shadow as a popular character from the franchise. But as someone who’s only somewhat familiar with the Sonic-verse, this is a fairly new character to me.
Also in the box are 7 numbered bags, an unnumbered bag holding the special printed dome for Shadow’s forehead, and a loose octagonal plate. There are no stickers in this set, instead including several printed parts.
As these are once again the opaque paper bags, here’s a quick look at all 7 bags when opened.
The build
This build begins like so many of the other helmet and bust builds: with an appropriate base. Most of the way through bag 1, the instructions tell you to store a trio of rings inside the base.
With bag 2, we abandon the pedestal for now, and begin work on Shadow’s noggin. While it’s no surprise that the build is covered in studs pointing every-which-way at this point, there are a few interesting design choices revolving around the gold rings and some Technic connections at this stage.
Bag 3 further develops this chunk of brickwork, adding height and additional connection points for outward-facing features. The array of colors hidden within the black, red, and nougat exterior is impressive! Purple, neon yellow, dark blue, and dark pink all make an appearance somewhere within the head of Shadow. There’s also a hidden Chaos Emerald (trans-bright green gem piece) buried within the build at this step.
With bag 4, some of the defining exterior work comes into place. Shadow’s smirk appears on a curved slope, and sockets are prepared for the large eyes in the next bag. The first of many “spines” are added to the rear of the head, this time utilizing another printed part.
Eyes and some rear spines get added in bag 5. The printed 2×4 oval-ish tiles are excellent parts, placed at an angle to the underlying plate thanks to a jumper connection and some great geometry. The spines are an interesting agglomeration of parts, built around a row of 1×2 bricks with studs on the sides in bright yellow-orange. They end up completely covered up by black slopes by the end.
The next bag, number 6, just adds on two more spines. While the barbs look great when compared to the source material, they’re quite loose. The Technic connections are the source of failure, rather the standard stud-and-tube connections on those Technic bricks. Be careful not to bump the spines from here on out.
Bag 7 completes the build, adding the last spine atop Shadow’s head, the forehead dome, a nose, and a pair of pointed ears. As the spine comes together, you’ll run into an instruction error on page 119 where substeps 3 and 4 are reversed.
Pushing through the error, here’s what to expect after the last bag.
The finished build
All assembled, Shadow makes for a fairly sturdy bust, so long as you’re wary of those four loose spines. The lines are clean on the finished model, and it fits right in with all the other helmets and busts that LEGO has made in the last few years.
Conclusions and recommendations
For the LEGO fan in me, this is an expert display of some great shaping techniques. I learned some things having built this model, and that felt great given a price point just below the $0.10/part threshold. The variety of hidden colors, and all the interesting pieces used to create such cranial shaping are certainly of interest to me, the fan of parts that I am. And all the prints are exquisite, and have ample possibility in other builds outside of Shadow the Hedgehog.
But as someone who’s a casual Sonic fan, I don’t understand why this isn’t Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or Dr. Eggman/Robotnik. Shadow has always existed as a secondary character to me, and it feels weird to jump into Shadow before covering the more-known icons. I’m sure many of you in the comments will feel differently, and there’s certainly got to be some buzz if he’s showing up in the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie voiced by Keanu Reeves. But I feel like the desire for this set ends with Sonic fans, where something like Vader’s helmet or Mjolnir is more easily identified by your average shopper.
Available for pre-order now and hitting store shelves on October 1st, LEGO Sonic the Hedgehog 77000 Shadow the Hedgehog is made up of 720 pieces and retails for US $69.99 | CAN $89.99 | UK £59.99. It may also be available from 3rd party resellers on Amazon and eBay.
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
