We continue our look at the September Nike releases today with a look at 43010 Nike Slam Dunk. When I first saw pictures of this set, I felt it was setting out to imitate the posters of the 80s and 90s, with creative photography photography capturing the action from around the court, the crowd looking on, with the Nike Sports Star front and centre. Does it succeed in this? Lets take a closer look.

While I started to put this set together, the Knoller in Chief was still away and I was acting as the Knoller’s Apprentice.

We star with a variety of plates and tiles, as well as curved variations. We have curved azure tiles with radii of one two and three studs. Of interest are the 4 3×3 corner cuttout plates.

We have a variety of longer elements: technic bricks as well as plates. These are accompanied by a collection of 2×2 triangle tiles in azure, dark blue, and violet. There is also a collection of round 1×1 tiles, as well as 1×1 half-circle tiles.

Moving on through the set, dark blue remains the dominant colour, with pale plue, medium azure and regular blue lurking in the background. The big, obvious unique element here is the Nike/LEGO branded transparent panel making up part of the backboard.

The final bags focus on the figure builds, and there are 3 variations of uniform on offer. As such, some white, blue, and spring yellowish green elements are doubled up, and there are 3 sets of 4×4 plates in dark blue for the first time. We have a number of bricks, plates and curved slopes, to say nothing of brackets, frames, ball and socket joints and ‘robot arms’

I want to take a quick look at the sticker sheets: there are four. The first is printed on prismatic reflective stock and includes a large scoreboard, as well as some general decorations to hang around the court. The time clock measures 09:37 minutes remaining in the time period. It also reveals the name of our favorite Danish Plastic Brick Company when turned on its head. There are banners: one with a LEGO Brick, labeled ‘Master Builders’ with 1932 – the year the company was officially founded. Another shows a basketball with the Nike swoosh printed on it. This one is labeled “Champion Athletes”, with 1972 – Nike’s foundation year.

The other sheets are printed on transparent sock, and provide decorations for the basketballer’s uniform How will they show up on the dark blue tiles used for the singlet? I had some concerns about how these blues and purples might contrast here. We shall find out later.

The build

We start up building a platform with an arch to the side. This is layered with tiles to resemble a wooden floored court, while the outer half out the key is filled with curved azure tiles.

Next, we set to work on the pole supporting the ring and score board: it’s made up of dual Technic Bricks, secured by plates and transfixed by blue pegs.

The pole plugs into the hole at the back of the base, with brackets holding it in place.

We create an impression of a distant crowd, using 1×1 tiles between a couple of wedge plates. The base if decorated with violet and blue trapezoids, with prismatic NIKE/LEGO logos. It took me over a week to realise that I had place one of the blue tiles incorrectly…

We add a beam to one side, which will support the score board.

The backboard is made of up transparent bricks, surrounded by brackets and dark blue tiles. An orange ring element forms the hoop.

We add a nother few sideboards to the other side, and attach the score board.

I love the reference to 0937 (LEGO upside down) on the score board.

I also love the way that the colours on the reflective stickers would dance as you move the angle of viewing. This really gives these banners the feeling that they are something special.

We build a row of stars and stripes that appear to be magically propelling the player up to the hoop.

At this point, there are choices to be made: We have a choice of heads, along with a choice of colours. The builds follow the same plan: legs, torso, head and arms. The arms are essentially unchanged between the players, but the decorations on the legs and singlet are defined for each character.

The left leg attaches to the hips using a ratchet joint, while the right leg is attached ising a click joint peg into a regular technic hole, allowing relatively free rotation. The Shoes and shorts each have specific decorations.

The feet are huge. I get it: in a Nike poster, the focus will almost always be on the shoes, and the shoes on this model are out of proportion to the rest of the figure. And that’s fine.

The construction is interesting, with the rounded base and interior, while brackets allow curved slopes and wedges to form the sides of the shoes. The toe is formed using the relatively new 2×2 quarter circle curved slope.

Considering the legs, both knees and ankles are fixed, and while they both wear customisable shorts, the left leg wears a compression stocking while the right is essentially reddish bown, down to the ankle.

Unlike most construction figure and creature builds, the right leg is attached to a relatively free swivel – not a click swivel, which is reserved for the left leg only. The ‘loose swivel’ on the right hip allows the foot to easily fit onto the starburst, as the player leaps for the hoop. The ratchet joint on the left hip stabilises the body between the two fixed points: one above the hip, and the other through the knee.

We fill in the torso with our preferred decoration. All of the options of for the singlet are dark blue (4×4 tiles, with 1×2 tiles with cutoffs forming the neckline, while a 1x4x2/3 arch forms the singlet’s straps.

I was happy enough with the clarity of the first (blue, with stars) and the third ( honeycomb with spring yellowish green) of the sticker sets on the dark blue background, while the pattern on the middle row (Dark Azure and violet ) was barely discernible. Given the clarity of this pattern on the white shorts, I wonder if they had originally been intended to go with a white singlet, but the decision was made a little later in the process to leave it as a blue front and back – this would have saved a few tiled elements

We build the head: it is relatively simple compared to some other LEGO brick built heads I have built – I love that it sticks to the Brickheadz tradition of including some hidden pink bricks in the middle, where the brain might be. We can choose to build it with a topknot, shave bald, or with a layer of black hair.

Finally the arms. The right arm is wearing a blue compression sleeve, with a tiny Nike Sticker on it. The left arm is all brown. The hands feature the element designed initially for dragon toes, and have 3 fingers and a thumb. There is a bonus ball joint socket incorporated in the right hand to allow the hand to hold onto the basketball on improbable angles.

And with our completed figure on the stand, a few things are apparent: the model has very little mobility below the hips, despite the moving hips. The head and arms are reasonably mobile, but I had a little difficulty naturally posing the left arm. Perhaps I should watch more actual basketball?

Some thoughts

The advertising copy from for this set just about tells us where we are headed with this set:

The audience is quiet. Anticipation fills the air. They shoot – they score! Capture the energy and excitement of that epic moment before a player performs a poster-worthy slam dunk with this awesome LEGO® Nike building set (43010) for kids aged 10 and over.

I have commented (many times) about how SportsBall – either participation or observation – is not really part of my personal makeup. But even I have not been able to help but notice the basketball posters over the years: a tallk player leaps into the air, lifts the ball up over the hoop and throws the ball down, and scores, to the rapturous cheers of the crowd.

This set is, to a point, a poster. The figure has limited mobility, and is all but fixed in position. The Build emphasis the hands and feet. The Skill and the Shoe. The arms, legs, torso and head all fade into the background compared to the extremities. This forced perspective means you don’t have to resort to wide angle lenses to get those exaggerated proportions seen in posters. I might do this a little, anyway.

The Audience, banner and scoreboard almost fade into insignificance, while at the same time providing a greater context for the model. I did love the way that the reflective stickers changed colours as I moved the might source, or indeed just rotated it.

And finally, the backboard provides the perfect backdrop for acts of athletic prowess

This set might not be for everyone. But it does bring the basketball hero shot off the wall, and into a three-dimensional form. It’s not something I would normally buy for myself, but I found a few aspects to be enticing: the basketball hoop, and the associated signage are quite effective, and I enjoyed seeing the way the representation of the crowd in the bleachers came together. I appreciated the call backs to each company’s history, as well as the ‘hidden’ LEGO on the scoreboard.

The forced perspective building technique emphasizes the players’ hands and feet – and this is a real highlight of the set. I also love the starburst underneath the right foot, launching the player up to the hoop.

I appreciate that the figure can be customised, with 3 seperate designs of head included, as well as the different shoe, shorts and singlet designs.

However, I am a little dubious of the clarity of one of the prints on the dark blue tile, and wonder if a change was made to the colour of the singlet after the artwork was finalized? From a distance, the writing on the ‘lightning pattern’ tiles in the centre has poor contrast between the background and text. The one on the left is a little better, while the spring-yellowish-green version on the right has the best contrast. cleare

I can see an opportunity for fans to change out the existing singlet and shorts for those of their favorite player. There is probably a bit of scope for a creative graphic designer to put together a set of parts with the appropriate decorations… Just saying.

At the end of the day, this is a set for the basketball-loving Nike Fan, or the Nike-loving basketball fan. While the playability is limited, there is scope to casually change the pose every time you are lost in a day dream, every time you just walk past it or just feel like it. I’m happy to give the set 3 out of 5 Arbitrary praise units. This set isn’t really aimed at me. Although, I can think of plenty of people it will appeal to.

Here’s a summary of some of my favorite shots…

I’d love to know what you think of this set. Is it for you? Do you know someone who would love the 3-D basketball poster on their bedroom shelf? Leave your comments below.

Set 43010 Nike Slam Dunk has 805 pieces, no minifigures, and a number of ways to customise the figure. It is priced at $AUD109.99 / $USD69.99 / €69.99 / £59.99 and is available now. This set was provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes, and all opinions are my own.

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Until Next Time,

Play Well!